Russia-Ukraine updates: 2 US veterans who joined Ukrainian forces missing

The World Bank issued a report on Tuesday that said the war in Ukraine dealt a major shock to commodity markets and altered global patterns of trade, production and consumption in ways that will keep prices at historically high levels through the end of 2024.

"Overall, this amounts to the largest commodity shock we’ve experienced since the 1970s," Indermit Gill, the World Bank’s vice president for equitable growth, finance and institutions, said in a statement.

The report said energy prices are expected to rise more than 50% in 2022 before easing in 2023 and 2024.

Wheat prices are forecast to increase more than 40%, putting pressure on developing economies that rely on wheat imports, especially from Russia and Ukraine, according to the World Bank.

Metal prices are projected to increase by 16% in 2022 before easing in 2023, according to the report.

Crude oil prices are expected to average $100 a barrel in 2022, its highest level since 2013 and an increase of more than 40% compared to 2021, the report said. Oil prices are expected to moderate to $92 in 2023, which is above the five-year average of $60 a barrel, the World Bank said.

-ABC News' Christine Theodorou

Polish natural gas company PGNiG announced Tuesday they received a notice from Gazprom that deliveries will be suspended starting Wednesday, April 27.

Poland has refused to pay for gas in rubles and PGNiG says they are prepared to procure gas supplies from alternate sources; storage is currently at 80%.

“Not a problem,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said.

Gazprom sent a similar notice to Bulgaria's natural gas company Bulgargaz, according to a statement from the country's energy minister Alexander Nikolov.

Morawiecki urged other EU countries, particularly Germany, to stop relying on Russian energy before Russia itself decides to cut them off, or sets economy-crippling prices.

-ABC News' Christine Theodorou, Conor Finnegan and Tomek Rolski

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., had a heated back and forth with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Capitol Hill over the war in Ukraine.

Paul pushed Blinken on support for Ukraine’s possible membership in NATO and what he called "the reasons" for the Russian invasion.

"I'm saying that the countries that have been attacked, Georgia and Ukraine, were part of the Soviet Union since 1920s,” he said.

“That does not give Russia the right to attack them,” Blinken said, explaining that the Kremlin’s security concerns about Ukraine joining NATO were adequately weighed and attempts at diplomacy were made.

"It is abundantly clear, in President Putin's own words, that this was never about Ukraine, being potentially part of NATO, and it was always about his belief that Ukraine does not deserve to be a sovereign independent country that it must be reassumed into Russia in one form or another," Blinken said.

Paul interjected during Blinken’s answer, denying he was making the argument that Russia’s actions were justified. The senator then asked Blinken about talks between Russia and Ukraine and the potential outcomes.

“Would the U.S. would President Biden be open to accepting Ukraine as an unaligned neutral nation?” Paul asked.

“We're not going to be more Ukrainian than the Ukrainians. These are decisions for them to make," Blinken said.

-ABC News' Shannon Crawford and Connor Finnegan

The United States returned diplomats to Ukraine for the first time since the beginning of the Russian invasion with a team making a day trip across the border from Poland to meet Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials, the State Department confirmed on Tuesday.

"The deputy chief of mission and members of the embassy team traveled to Lviv, Ukraine, today, where they were able to continue our close collaboration with key Ukrainian partners," said State Department spokesperson Ned Price.

Price called the move a "first step" toward eventually reopening the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.

"Today's travel was a first step ahead of more regular travel in the immediate future. And as we've said, we're accelerating preparations to resume Embassy Kyiv operations just as soon as possible," Price said. "We are constantly assessing and evaluating and reassessing the security situation with a view toward resuming those embassy operations as soon as possible."

-ABC News' Conor Finnigan