Britain is on the edge of cannibalism because of the war in Ukraine, a Russian TV channel has claimed. 

The Kremlin friendly TsargradTV published an article entitled ‘Cold, Hunger, Cannibalism: London fell into its own Ukrainian pit’ complete with a picture of two confused cavemen with some Union Jack bunting. 

"Things are not going well in the UK," the author states.

"While politicians are playing into the Ukrainian crisis, their own population is preparing for starvation.” 

It also quotes an article by Jeremy Clarkson about the cost of living in the Times in which he jokes that, "Politicians say they are 'monitoring the situation', which means they aren’t doing anything at all, but one day they will have to because while people can live without heat or clothing or even sex, they cannot live without food.

"Hunger makes people eat their neighbours."

The article also claims that the crisis is caused by western sanctions against Moscow, which have destroyed supply chains and restricted the flow of goods from Russia and Belarus as they are the “largest suppliers of food and fertilisers”.

Global food crisis

The European Commission believes that Russia is deliberately attacking farms and supply chains in order to raise food prices globally. 

“We know that Vladimir Putin is targeting food production, food stores, food producing equipment in his attacks in Ukraine,” Commissioner Mairead McGuinness told The Anton Savage Show on Saturday. 

“He’s hitting farm yards and silos and all of those things and that, in my view, is a deliberate effort to reduce the supply of vital grain for the global market, hitting the most vulnerable and therefore causing disruption and social unrest.”

Three old women rummage through a dumpster outside the market in Brazil. Picture by: Alamy.com

Ukraine is a huge producer of sunflower oil and combined with Russia it produces 30% of global wheat exports. 

Moscow has also spent vast amounts of treasure and manpower capturing the port city of Mariupol; prior to the conflict much of Ukraine’s trade left through the Black Sea city and its capture by Russian forces dealt a hammer blow to the country’s ability to get its exports to global markets.

It is part of the reason why the price of food globally has soared globally by 30% since 2021 and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has warned that - combined with climate change and the pandemic - the conflict "threatens to tip tens of millions of people over the edge into food insecurity followed by malnutrition, mass hunger and famine".

However, in a phone call to Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Putin said he would be prepared to help avert a global food crisis if the west were to lift sanctions against Russia. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at a press conference in Moscow in February 2022. Picture by: dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo

"Vladimir Putin emphasises that the Russian Federation is ready to make a significant contribution to overcoming the food crisis through the export of grain and fertiliser, subject to the lifting of politically motivated restrictions by the West," the Kremlin said in a statement following the call. 

They also dismissed as “unfounded” claims that Russia was to blame for the crisis.

Main image: Empty shelves in the drinks section of a branch of Tesco in Liverpool. Shoppers will start noticing shortages within days as a result of the crisis in carbon dioxide (CO2) supply, a food industry chief has warned. Picture date: Tuesday September 21, 2021.