Rabat – Over 4.2 million Ukrainians have left the country to seek refuge in neighboring countries, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
UNHCR’s latest report on the Ukraine war highlighted that in the past 24 hours, almost 40,000 people reached Ukraine’s neighboring countries.
Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 4,176,401 Ukrainians have fled conflict areas in just over five weeks.
Many of those fleeing Ukraine are women, children, and elderly since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has prohibited men of military age between 18 to 60 from leaving the country.
Ukrainian citizens are exempt from visa requirements in the European Union and Switzerland in particular.
During Pope Francis’s two-day visit to Malta this week, he called on Sunday for the world to be “tireless in praying and in offering assistance to those who suffer.”
Russia and Ukraine have long provided a large portion of the world’s food. The two countries alone account for nearly 30% of the world’s exports of wheat and barley, 20% of all corn, and 76% of the world’s sunflower oil, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).
The Ukrainian crisis could have dire consequences and lead to food shortages and high energy and gas prices in many countries, including Morocco.
By March 31 last week, the price of a liter of diesel in Casablanca stood at MAD 14.31 ($1.48), while gasoline reached MAD 14.20 ($1.47) per liter.
Diesel prices surpassed that of gasoline for the first time ever in Morocco.
Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Morocco has abstained from picking a side at the UN General Assembly during a vote for a US-sponsored resolution that condemned Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs has held phone calls with both Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov and Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to discuss the situation in Ukraine but no details of the calls were shared.
In general, the North African country has adopted a stance of “constructive neutrality” reminiscent of most Asian and African countries’ “non-aligned” position during the Cold War.
While noting that it “regrets” the ongoing war amid Russia’s violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, Morocco has maintained its calls for genuine political dialogue.
The country’s position seems to be that rather than side-picking in Russia vs West proxy war, honest dialogue is the most optimal way to end what appears to be an unwinnable war for both Ukraine and Russia.
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