L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, devoted the most prominent coverage in its May 24 edition to the “specter of a disastrous global food crisis,” especially in the nations of the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia that rely on Ukrainian grain exports.

The Vatican newspaper article (“Grain: A War in the War”) cited remarks made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, statistics from the Italian agricultural agency Coldiretti, and reports from CNN, The Guardian, and The Times on the grain shortage and a possible military response to the Russian blockade of Ukrainian grain exports.