Information is spreading on social networks that the UN has allegedly published an article justifying world hunger and urging us not to fight it. It is manipulation.

As VoxCheck writes, the article with the title "The benefits of world hunger" exist, but it was satirical and was published back in 2008. It was written by George Kent, a professor of political science at the University of Hawaii. The article reflects on the factors that cause and maintain hunger worldwide. For example, he writes that the conventional wisdom is that low-paying jobs cause hunger.

At the same time, it is the hunger that leads to the appearance of low-paid jobs. According to VoxCheck, the official Twitter account of the UN Chronicle magazine, in which the text was published more than 10 years ago, clarified that the article "Advantages of World Hunger" was intended to be satirical. "This article appeared in the UN Chronicle 14 years ago as satire and should never have been taken literally. We realized this was a mistake, even in the form of satire, and removed the article from our site," the message reads. However, now the article's topic has been raised again in the media space against the background of Russia's war in Ukraine and the food crisis that may arise due to hostilities. In this way, Russian propaganda wants to create the appearance that international organizations and the countries of the West do not care about the consequences of the war, and it is allegedly beneficial for them to continue the war as long as possible. In fact, Russia started the war in Ukraine, and the Russian Federation is also responsible for all the consequences caused by the war.

Russian media write about this concerning the article by The New York Times with a comment from an unnamed source. They said that Russia did not promise not to shell those parts of Ukrainian ports that are not directly involved in exporting grain. It is not true.

Such a message contradicts the statement of Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who unconditionally condemned the shelling of Odesa port. The international community also unanimously pointed to Russia's violation of its obligations regarding the safe operation of the port infrastructure to export grain. According to Radio Svoboda, the UN assured that the unofficial comment of an "unnamed source" to The New York Times does not reflect the position of the UN. Antonio Guterres' words are official. The spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Oleg Nikolenko, noted that the use of "unnamed sources" is a provocation.