United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls russia’s invasion a “perfect storm.” According to Guterres, it is not the biggest security problem europe has experienced since The Second World War that has made the invasion perfect, but the migration of more than 10 million people, energy security and the food crisis that began.
Russia, which is the first producer of natural gas and the second largest producer of oil, as well as home to precious metals, is one of the world’s largest grain producers, along with Ukraine. The Kremlin also pressed the button for its second trump card, grain. According to Guterres, Ukraine and Russia provide 30 percent of the world’s wheat and barley, one-fifth of corn and more than half of sunflower oil. The world is in danger of famine when it breaks the production-supply chain with the invasion of Ukraine, one of the rare countries with the ‘Black Earth’, which is one of the most fertile lands in the world. Ahead of the crisis, which will affect about 1 billion people, the West stepped in.
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FOOD SECURITY AT MACRON’S TABLE
The previous day, during a meeting between Russian President Putin and French President Macron, the issue was also on the table. Macron expressed concern to Putin about the emerging problem of ensuring global food security, while Putin pointed to sanctions against Russia. In a sense, it has shown that it will use its power towards cereal products. Now to Russia’s new plans for agriculture in Ukraine. The Russian Army, which has targeted military and civilian settlements since the beginning of the war, has added another one to the military front over the past week and launched a new operation on grain. In international news, the Russian military is hitting granaries in Ukraine. Russia has stepped up its attacks on kherson and Zaporijya oblasts, the country’s most important production locations in this sense, burning farmland and hitting wheat, corn and barley silos with long-range weapons. Finally, Valentin Reznichenko, head of the Dnipro Regional Administration, shows in a video that Russian missiles hit grain stores in the Sinelnikovkiy region.
CNN: MILLION-DOLLAR TEAM STOLEN
Vehicles belonging to Ukrainian farmers have been seized by the Russian military, CNN reports. The harvesters, valued at $5 million, were first taken to occupied Crimea and then to Russia. Martin Frick, director of the United Nations World Food Programme, said that with 4.5 million tons of grain on ships in Ukrainian ports, Russia is conducting a new study on preventing these ships and increasing the problem of famine.
HOLODOMOR CONCERN AT KIEV
The Russian military’s war on food will not only hit Ukraine. Most of the nearby geography, especially Turkey, depends on grain products from Ukraine. The crisis we’re experiencing in sunflower oil is the first step. Russia’s second plan is to have a second Holodomor period in Ukraine. Despite the most fertile land in the world, the greatest famine in history was experienced in this country again. Between 1932 and 1933, all agricultural products in Ukraine were confiscated on Stalin’s orders, creating artificial famine. During the Holodomor period, which means “starving to death,” more than 8 million Ukrainians, 1/3 of the country’s population, starved to death.
