Russia Which Is Targeting Goods In Its War With Ukraine To Create Food Shortages Breaks West S Resolve

The day after a Russian rocket hit a Canadian-owned vegetable oil terminal in this southern Ukrainian city, police cordoned off the surrounding streets, fearing the Russians might strike again. Forty-eight hours after the June 22 attack, police had left and locals rushed to fill plastic jugs from the shallow stream of vegetable oil mixed with dirt and debris in a gutter behind the premises. The scene outside the Viterra terminal was a bleak moment in the deteriorating global food crisis. Ukrainians who filled their jugs with contaminated oil said they were driven to do so because of the skyrocketing spending on grocery stores. And the burnt storage tanks on the other side of the metal terminal fence foreshadowed a difficult position that would only intensify as this war continues. Russia’s strategy in hitting sites like the Viterra facility is obvious to Danylo, an eighth-grader who lives just 300 meters from the facility and spends every afternoon with friends at a playground right next to the terminal. “The Russians want to create food shortages, as they did in Mariupol,” said the 14-year-old, who was at home at the time of the attack and shot a video of orange flames and black smoke rising into the sky. “The oil refineries have been hit, the grain fields have been hit. Some of them [Viterra] “The tanks are still full, so they might hit it again.” With enough support, Ukraine can still defeat Russia The teenager’s analysis is in line with the Kremlin’s own description of his plans. The goal is to create shortages, raise commodity prices and force the West to reconsider its support for Ukraine. “There is a very cynical joke – not even a joke, just an outcry – in Moscow. I have heard it many times from different people. “All our hope is in famine,” said Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the Kremlin-run RT network, at a June 20 hearing at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. “Here’s what that means,” she continued, with Russian President Vladimir Putin sitting next to her on stage. “It means that the hunger will start now and they will lift the sanctions and become friends with us because they will realize that it is impossible not to be friends with us.” So far, the West is holding steady. The G7 summit in Elmau, Germany, ended this week with a statement categorically blaming Russia for rising commodity prices – and a promise not to give in to such tactics. “Russia’s aggression is hampering global recovery and dramatically worsening energy security and access to food worldwide,” the final statement, which included a pledge of $ 4.5 billion to combat rising food prices, said in a statement. new initiative of the World Bank, the World Alliance. for food security. However, the G7 said sanctions against Russia would remain in place “for as long as necessary”. The growing list of sanctions has driven Russia largely cut off from the global banking system, forcing it to default on a foreign debt this week. Moscow had the reserves to make the $ 100 million payment, but sanctions made it impossible to transfer the money to its creditors. Oleksandr Kuzmin collects the oil left on the ground around the burned Viterra terminal in Mykolaiv. Ukrainians filling their jugs with contaminated oil say they were pushed to do so because of skyrocketing spending on grocery stores. “Anton Skyba” / The Globe and Mail Many Western countries have either banned the import of Russian oil and gas – the Kremlin’s main sources of income – or have pledged to phase them out by the end of this year. Top Western brands have withdrawn from Russia since the start of the war on February 24, and the World Bank has predicted that the country’s economy will shrink by 11.4 percent this year. The economic crisis, then, is likely to be painful and protracted on both sides. The price of oil has skyrocketed from about $ 70 a barrel at the start of the war to more than $ 110. Meanwhile, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Price Index, which tracks the value of a basket of common marketable foods, hit a record high of 159.3 in March. It has fallen slightly since then, but in May it was still 22 points higher than the same period last year. Since the start of the war, the Russian navy has maintained a blockade of the Black Sea, preventing Ukraine – one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat – from marketing its product. About 22 million tonnes that would normally be exported via Mykolaiv and other Ukrainian ports remain in storage facilities across the country. The critically necessary wheat will probably soon be lost. Gennady Ivanov, director of BPG Shipping, a Dubai-based shipment of dry goods, said Russia appeared to be attacking Ukraine’s ability to resume exports after the war. “As far as commodity prices are concerned, it is enough today to keep the ports blocked and mined,” instead of launching expensive missiles at infrastructure. “I assume, with the destruction of the port terminals, that there is a plan to significantly weaken Ukraine’s export potential in the future.” Another Ukrainian shipping official warned that if the war continued, the entire crop this year – 40 million tonnes – would also be in jeopardy and Ukrainian farmers might not even be able to plant seeds next year. The disappearance of more than 60 million tonnes of grain from the world market will be felt around the world, he said, adding that Mr Putin’s message was essentially summed up in a ransom note: “You have to force Ukraine to surrender and then I will be everything. good.” The Globe and Mail did not name the shipping executive because he was not authorized by his company, a major international company, to discuss the situation. Ukraine has also accused Russia of seizing some 400,000 tonnes of grain from occupied territories. It is not clear whether the stolen grains were intended for domestic Russian consumption or would be sold internationally. Rising food prices will hit hardest in some of the world’s poorest countries. Lebanon, a country already in deep economic crisis, imported more than 80 percent of its grain from Ukraine by 2020. Libya, Tunisia and Pakistan relied on Ukraine for about half of their supply. Bread prices have skyrocketed in Yemen, which has been facing famine amid 11 years of civil war. Ukraine is also the largest exporter of sunflower oil in the world, so the war led to global shortages of this basic product. Russia says the solution is simple: If Ukraine stops fighting, the blockade will end, as will the food crisis. The Ukrainian government is begging the world not to give in to Putin’s blackmail. The aftermath of the attack on the Viterra terminal could have been much worse: the facility is integrated into a residential neighborhood, with a series of houses just 15 to 20 meters from the exterior wall of the complex. “Anton Skyba” / The Globe and Post office “If it were not for Russia’s war on Ukraine, there simply would not be a shortage of food,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a virtual speech to African Union leaders on June 20. Since the beginning of the war, Mr Zelensky has argued that the only way to end the conflict is for Ukraine’s allies to provide it with the weapons it needs to make Mr Putin realize he cannot conquer Ukraine militarily. . “The food crisis in the world will continue as long as this colonial war continues, Russia’s war against our state and as long as our ports are closed.” Some analysts have pinned their hopes on a negotiated solution that could see Russia partially lifting its embargo to allow Ukraine to export grain to the international market – perhaps with cargo accompanied by foreign navies. “There is hope that an agreement can be reached that will quickly alleviate some possible food shortages,” said Seth Goldstein, an analyst at Morningstar, a Chicago-based market research firm. But Ukrainian officials have dismissed the idea as “crazy” as it would require a massive demining effort – four months of storms have moved mines on both sides of the Black Sea – amid a war of attrition. Commander Natalia Humeniuk, a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian army’s southern region, said Russia had shown no sign of being interested in helping the grain market. “As soon as there was talk of unblocking the ports, they stepped up their attacks on food targets and places that are necessary for food exports,” she said in an interview outside the Officers’ Building in the port city of Odessa. Yuri Vitrenko, chairman of the board of Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state-owned oil and gas company, sees rising energy prices as part of the same pressure campaign. Russia’s relentless attacks on refineries and oil depots – combined with the closure of the port of Odessa and the loss of imports from Belarus, which sided with Russia in the war – have deprived Ukraine of 98 percent of its normal supply. in oil and gas. he said. This has left the country struggling with alternative suppliers – and worrying about shortages next winter. Mr Vitrenko said Russia had indeed begun raising energy prices before the start of the war, hoping to persuade the West to comply with Mr Putin’s demands to halt NATO expansion to the east and to abide by the terms. of Moscow for Ukraine. “They believed that with these high prices, the West would accept it,” Vitrenko said in an interview at his Kyiv office. “They have this leverage in the West, because the West needs Russian energy. Even if, for example, you do not import Russian energy, world prices depend on the supply of Russian energy. Higher prices mean higher inflation, disgruntled voters and political challenges for …