Russia’s propaganda that West is forcing Ukraine into one other Holodomor holds no water

The Russian media are spreading data that the West, particularly Great Britain, is forcing Ukrainian authorities to create a meals scarcity, presumably one other Holodomor, and blaming Russia for it.

Holodomor refers back to the hunger of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians in 1932-33 because of Soviet coverage.

They say that Ukraine is planning to export to England the stays of agricultural merchandise saved within the state reserve. The Russian media argue that agricultural exports to Europe might result in famine in Ukraine.

That’s not true; neither is the assertion that the export of agricultural merchandise to Europe will result in famine. Russia’s navy actions in Ukraine, nonetheless, might. As for the export of agricultural merchandise, these are from final yr’s harvest, which, in line with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, was in extra and thus deliberate to be exported till August. The identical opinion was expressed by the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, Mykola Solsky. According to him, there are 20 million tonnes of final yr’s crop.

This means cash for farmers which they use for sowing, lease and different wants. Even a partial resumption of exports is extraordinarily essential because it ensures the circulate of funds for the sowing marketing campaign: the acquisition of diesel gasoline, seeds, fertilizers, plant safety merchandise and for the fee of wages.

A US official has mentioned the Russians broken at the least six granaries in Ukraine. These are deliberate actions of the Russian Federation as a result of the granaries don’t pose a menace to them. We are speaking about meals safety not solely in Ukraine, however all through the world. According to the US State Department, the Russian Navy is obstructing greater than 90 civilian ships within the Black Sea area that had been supposed to move grain and different meals. Russia has already bombed at the least three civilian ships carrying items from Black Sea ports all over the world, together with one chartered by an agricultural firm. As a outcome, this will negatively have an effect on the meals sector in Europe itself as a result of about 30 per cent of the world’s wheat exports fall within the Black Sea area, apart from 20 per cent of corn and 75 per cent of vegetable oil.

According to Human Rights Watch, the meals disaster has already worsened within the Middle East and North Africa because of Russian aggression in Ukraine. In specific, Lebanon receives 80 per cent of its wheat from Ukraine, Egypt buys wheat in addition to giant volumes of vegetable oil, Libya imports greater than 40 per cent of wheat from Ukraine, Yemen at the least 27 per cent. In addition, northwestern Syrian authorities present the area with wheat and flour bought via Turkey, which additionally imports 90 per cent of its wheat from Ukraine.

Due to the blocking of seaports, Ukraine started to export grain to the EU by rail. Traders have already made the primary deliveries of Ukrainian corn to the EU international locations. That is, Ukraine is making each effort to forestall a meals disaster not solely throughout the nation, but additionally ensures provides to different international locations whose well-being is dependent upon Ukrainian agricultural merchandise. Therefore, problems of the scenario are attainable solely because of navy actions and aggression of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine.

(The author is a former Ukrainian diplomat-turned-journalist based mostly out of Warsaw, Poland)