David Beasley, head of the United Nations World Food Programme, is pleading with Russian President Vladimir Putin to reopen Ukraine"s Black Sea ports before global calamity strikes, writes CNN.

“Millions of people around the world will die because these ports are being blocked”, - Beasley told CNN.
Asked what he would say directly to Putin, the UN official said: “If you have any heart at all for the rest of the world, regardless of how you feel about Ukraine, you need to open up those ports”.

Vital shipments of agriculture from Ukraine, known as the breadbasket of the world, are stuck in the war-torn nation because the port of Odessa and neighboring ports have been blocked by Russian officials.

Beasley, a former Republican governor of South Carolina, warned that the ports must be operational within the next 60 days or Ukraine"s agriculture-centric economy will implode.

“If you don’t get this port issue resolved and open, Ukraine’s economy completely collapses”, - Beasley said at the SABEW conference in New York. “It becomes landlocked like Moldova. The ports are critical”.