Russia’s war against Ukraine and the resulting sanctions are pushing the world into a food crisis, according to fertilizer and coal billionaire Andrei Melnichenko. The war “has already led to soaring prices in fertilizers which are no longer affordable to farmers,” Melnichenko, the founder of EuroChem, one of Russia’s biggest fertilizer producers, said to Reuters. “Now it will lead to even higher food inflation in Europe, and likely food shortages in the world’s poorest countries.” Russia accounts for 13 percent of global fertilizer output. It is the largest exporter of urea and second in potash exports. Besides this, the country is a major producer of fertilizers containing nitrogen and phosphate. Soaring prices of natural gas, a key component of nitrogen-based fertilizers, were already pushing up product prices. With the West placing sanctions on Russia for its military incursion into Ukraine, fertilizer supply from Moscow could be severely disrupted. Higher prices …