Exclusive: Ukraine War Must End, Russia’s Fertiliser And Coal King Says

Exclusive: Ukraine War Must End, Russia's Fertiliser And Coal King Says

LONDON (Reuters) – The war in Ukraine is a tragedy that must be stopped or there will be a global food crisis as fertilizer prices are already too high for many farmers, Russia’s coal and fertiliser king Andrei Melnichenko said on Monday.

“The events in Ukraine are truly tragic. We urgently need peace,” Melnichenko, 50, who is Russian but was born in Belarus and has a Ukrainian mother, told Reuters in a statement emailed by his spokesman.

“As a Russian by nationality, a Belarusian by birth, and a Ukrainian by blood, I feel great pain and disbelief witnessing brotherly peoples fighting and dying.”

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Kim COghill)