WASHINGTON, June 29. /TASS/. The recent wave of West’s anti-Russian restrictions imposed over the special military operation in Ukraine has exacerbated the global food crisis, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov has said.

"As to the food security, it was the wave of anti-Russian restrictions, imposed by the US-led collective West, that spurred the global food crisis. Its root causes are incompetent macroeconomic steps taken by a number of developed nations, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic," the embassy’s press service quoted the ambassador as saying.

According to the diplomat, the crisis can be solved "only through free access of grain and fertilizers, including Russian ones, to global markets."

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a special military operation in Ukraine in response to a request from the leaders of the two Donbass republics. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans to occupy Ukrainian territories but that the goal was to demilitarize and denazify the country.

The West responded with sweeping sanctions against Russia. Also, Western countries have so far supplied billions of dollars worth of arms and military equipment to Kiev. Some Western politicians have acknowledged that an economic war is being waged against Russia. Putin said in March the West’s policy of sanctions on Moscow had been showing all signs of aggression, with its containment of Russia being a long-term strategy. He also noted that problems on the global food market had begun back in February 2020. Putin dismissed statements that Russia was allegedly blocking grain in Ukrainian ports as mere bluffing.