Article from EU vs Disinfo
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is having repercussions far beyond Ukraine's borders. Three months after Russia's senseless and brutal aggression, the United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP) (here) is warning of a global hunger crisis as a result of the war.
Known as the breadbasket of Europe, Ukraine has long been one of the world's leading agricultural producers and exporters. In its bid to subjugate Ukraine, Russia has targeted food warehouses, stolen crops and farm equipment (here), destroying Ukraine's food processing and transportation capacities and, most importantly, blocking Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea (here) to prevent the export of Ukrainian grain.
Russia's actions are directly destabilizing global food markets, while Russian disinformation is exacerbating tensions in an attempt to deflect blame and undermine global support for Ukraine.
The Kremlin’s disinformation ecosystem aims to convince a global audience that international sanctions imposed on Russia are to blame for rising food and fuel prices. Such messages have been disseminated in many languages, in Europe, its neighborhood, and beyond, and have been echoed by Chinese media (see here), increasing their global reach.
In fact, the international sanctions imposed on Russia target the Kremlin's ability to finance its military aggression – the root cause of the impending food crisis – and not the agricultural sector (here). Sanctions have exceptions (here) regarding exports and transactions related to food and agricultural products.
Russia is also using diplomatic forums (here) to claim that Ukraine is transporting grain to the EU, to pay the West for arms supplies, illustrating once again that Russian diplomats have become part of the Kremlin's disinformation machine (here) (see a similar claim echoed by Chinese media here). Similar disinformation messages claim that it is Ukraine that is blocking ships in its ports (here) – a claim disputed by Ukrainian fact-checkers.
Notably, previous pro-Kremlin disinformation messages directed at global audiences portrayed Russia's aggression against Ukraine as a response to a "Western conspiracy" (see also here). Now these narratives help frame the lies about global food security – “It’s the West’s fault.”
For Russian-speaking audiences, pro-Kremlin media outlets have something even more insidious at work. Over the years, disinformation has consistently denied the Holodomor, a man-made famine (here) created by Stalin to destroy the Ukrainian peasantry, which claimed millions of lives in the 1930s. Now, pro-Kremlin media outlets are claiming that Russia is the one preventing Kiev from organizing a new Holodomor in Ukraine by blocking Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea. In typical Orwellian fashion, Russia is being presented as the “savior” of Ukraine’s alleged actions, which are creating a global food crisis.