‘New problems’ could arise from hunger fuelled by the conflict in Ukraine, said Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said during a speech at the 89th International Agricultural Fair in Novi Sad on Saturday.

“If something does not change in the conflict in Eastern Europe, almost a quarter of the world will be in need of basic quantities of food, which will create new problems,” Vucic said in an address opening the week-long event in the Serbian city, which brings together exhibitors from 21 countries.

In May he had predicted that food shortages would hit a large part of the planet’s population next winter, which he said would be “the toughest in 70 years.”

While acknowledging the “galloping inflation, rising prices, hunger and conflict in Ukraine,” Orban hailed the “good news… that, based on the talks with Vucic, I can say that Hungary can count on Serbia, Serbia on Hungary.”

“We will have a difficult winter, but Serbia and Hungary have important food reserves, our two countries are safe when it comes to natural gas,” the Hungarian leader continued, criticizing the “economically unacceptable measures adopted in Brussels” against Russia.

Orban supporting Russia has repeatedly said that the EU sanctions imposed on Russia as more harmful to Hungary and other European nations than they are damaging to Moscow. He noted that, like Serbia, “Hungary did not impose sanctions against Russia which are equal to the nuclear bomb.” Budapest has thus far stymied the EU’s efforts to impose a total embargo on Russian oil and gas imports.
-RT