MOSCOW, May 24. /TASS/. More than 8.5 million people in Ukraine are facing starvation and the humanitarian situation in Kiev-controlled regions is near-critical, Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, said on Tuesday.

"The humanitarian situation in Kiev-controlled regions is quickly deteriorating and is near-critical. According to the UN Children’s Fund, some 8.7 million people in Ukraine are facing starvation and 22.8% of children under five suffer from malnutrition," he said.

According to Mizintsev, who also heads the Russian Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine, Kiev continues to act in the West’s interests, despite food shortages and a threat of a food crisis. "[Western countries] cynically declare their humanitarian support but instead are seeking to take grain from Ukraine as soon as possible via the so-called corridors of solidarity and care little about what will happen in Ukraine after its grain depots are emptied," he said, adding that the West never stops hysterically accusing Russia of allegedly creating a global food crisis.

US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that the global food crisis is being aggravated by Russia’s blocking grain exports from Ukraine. Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said earlier that Washington was deliberately twisting the fact when it claims that the food crisis is caused by Russia’s actions in the Black and Azov Seas whereas Kiev authorities "are mining ports to bar ships from delivering food and other goods to other states" and ignore Russia’s attempts to agree humanitarian corridors.