Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida announced that the country will double fiscal aid for Ukraine to $600m (£484m). The G7 nation had first announced help to Ukraine through loans worth $300m (£242m) in April, in addition to some military hardware.
Meanwhile, Russia on 24th February launched the war on Ukraine. And, according to the latest updates, the World Bank will make $30bn available to help stem a food security crisis threatened by Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has cut off most grain exports from the two countries. Also, UN secretary-general António Guterres has warned that the food shortages stoked by the war in Ukraine could last years and cause mass hunger and famine across the world. However, Financial markets have endured another torrid day amid concerns that the war in Ukraine, along with inflation and supply problems, was pushing the world towards recession. In the US the Dow Jones average closed down 3.57% on Wednesday while the broader S&P500 suffered its worst session since June 2020, plunging 4.04%.