Russia’s invasion is causing inflation and threatening millions of people who depend on Ukrainian produce
The savage war of Vladimir Putin against the peaceful people of Ukraine is the work of a man with ambitions bent on trying to secure his place in Russian history as the leader who restored the false “glory” of the Russian Soviet Union that disintegrated in 1989. There was no glory there but oppression, occupation of half of Europe and a Cold War that threatened nuclear annihilation of the world.
Putin’s massively destructive war, with continuous atrocities and war crimes, is now threatening another form of annihilation — that of millions of people in Asia and Africa who depend on Ukrainian wheat, maize and cooking oil as do other poor nations of the world.
The Russian president has blocked the export of millions of tons of Ukrainian cereals and cooking oil from Odessa on the Black Sea. He wants sanctions lifted before he will lift the blockade. In the meantime, evidence has emerged that Russia is stealing Ukrainian grain and shipping it to Crimea and then to Syria. It is a war tactic to starve the world and force Western nations to lift sanctions while millions go hungry and many die.
Ukraine was exporting 4.5 million tons of agricultural produce per month through its ports on the Black Sea. There are around 20 million tons of grain stockpiled in silos and there will be no storage facilities available for this year’s harvest of wheat, barley and grapeseed. Despite the war and the departure of up to 5 million Ukrainians, the farmers have continued to plant crops but have nowhere to store them. The sales are needed for national survival.