Grain, As A Weapon of War

"Such attacks by Russian terrorists are not only affecting our country but also global stability."

"The corridor must be secure. In fact, knowing Russia, it won't be safe unless the UN starts working very clearly and firmly at the level of the secretary general."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

 

"[If Ukraine cannot export food], the population of the poorest countries will be on the brink of survival!"

"The price of grain will increase, and not all countries will be able to afford buying agricultural products, which means food prices will significantly rise: flour, cereals, meat."

Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi

A grain warehouse destroyed by a Russian drone strike is seen in a sea port, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Odesa Region, Ukraine, July 24, 2023. Press Service of the Operational Command South of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Handout via Reuters

This has long ago been demonstrated not to be a just or a moral war, the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the pretense that Russia was proactively protecting itself from the nefarious plans of Ukrainian 'Nazis' set on destroying Russia. The principal Nazi, a Jewish-Ukrainian president, whose family members were Nazi Holocaust victims, has pledged to the population whose welfare he represents that every inch of Ukrainian land that Moscow has stolen will be returned to Ukraine. This is what makes him a Nazi as far as Vladimir Putin is concerned.

 

The president of the Russian Federation, intent on restoring Russia to its preeminent position of Eastern Europe Hegemon with himself at its helm, is outraged that Ukraine is fighting back -- is counterattacking, is reclaiming some of the vast territory that Vladimir Putin summarily absorbed as Russian territory and as such exempt from any claims by Ukraine -- actually sending bombs and drones and expeditionary groups over the border into Russian territory to wreak there a micro-violence of the macro-violence that Russia is conducting in Ukraine.

The Russian elites have no compunction over the fact that their troops on order from the Kremlin, are attacking civilian enclaves, civilian infrastructure, bombing apartment buildings, hospitals, schools, and committing war crimes. They echo their president's rage over Ukraine's 'terrorist' attacks on Russian targets. Theirs, Putin claims, is a just cause, to rid the world of fascists, even as Russian actions are fascist to their very core.

Russia daily proves to the world at large its moral core in bombing Ukraine port cities and their grain storage facilities where in one fell swoop 60,000 tons of grain were destroyed in an attack just south of the port city of Odesa, enough to feed 270,000 people for a year in a hungry world. Russia warned the world that any maritime vessels intending to help ship Ukraine grain shipments out of Black Sea ports would be regarded as enemy ships carrying weapons to aid Ukraine, and they would be destroyed.

 

Buildings in the Black Sea port city of Odesa lie in ruins after a third successive night of bombing by Russia   AP

 "If this grain is not only stopped but [also] destroyed . . . this is going to create a huge food crisis in the world. It is a very grave situation. This consideration that any ship [is considered as] a war ship and so a target for the military activities of Russia, is a step further in order to continue preventing Ukraine from exporting their grains."

"[The] massive air attacks [showed Russia’s] barbarian attitude which will be taken into consideration by the Council [of foreign ministers] today."

"The ministers will have to discuss how to proceed, but there is only one solution: to increase the military support to Ukraine. If they are being bombed, we have to provide anti-aerial capacities."

Josep Borrell, EU foreign and defence chief

 
"Hundreds of thousands of people, not to say millions, urgently need the grain from Ukraine, which is why we are working with all our international partners so that the grain in Ukraine does not rot in silos in the next few weeks, but reaches the people of the world who urgently need it."

"Putin hasn't just blown up the Black Sea Grain Initiative; now he has hit the port city of Odesa with a hail of bombs." 

"In doing that, he is robbing the world of any hope of Ukrainian grain. Every one of his bombs also hits the world's poorest."

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock

Russia has repeatedly attacked the Ukrainian port city of Odesa in the days since it withdrew from the grain deal   Getty Images