I want to start our conversation this week by reminding everyone that any agreement with Russia is not worth the paper it’s printed on. Any deals with Russia are absolutely nonsensical and useless. Period.

Do you remember just a bit over a month ago the world agreed on a deal with Russia to stop blocking vital grain exports to ease the global food crisis sparked by Russia’s unprovoked invasion in Ukraine? Do you remember all the speeches they were making on how they are worried about world famine and especially so for their partners in Africa? Do you remember their Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov running all around Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda, and the Republic of Congo screaming right and left that Russia is not to be blamed for the food crisis in Africa and they are doing their best to help? Remember?

Well, unsurprisingly, all lies. Since their blackmail on blowing up Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station wasn’t as successful as they had hoped — due to the West considering applying Nato’s Article 5 in response to a possible accident at Zaporizhzhia, Russia decided to go back to blackmailing the world with food.

Last week Vladimir Putin threatened the grain deal in his aggressive speech during the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum held in Russia. Seems all the “backward winning” of Russia’s military in Ukraine resulted in their willingness to renew their naval blockade in the Black Sea and continue threatening the African continent with a food crisis.

This is unsurprising to all of us in Ukraine because they are still attacking our grain silos with missiles all the time, on top of having stolen all of the grain and agricultural machinery from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

Famine ‘will force friendship with Kremlin’

Furthermore, we have the Kremlin’s mouthpiece Margarita Symonyan stating on stage during a conference: “All of our hopes are for famine. I mean, when famine really starts, they’ll have a chance to re-think everything and lift the sanctions and will become our friends because they’ll understand that it’s impossible not to be our friends.”

Thus, unfortunately, I must conclude that since Russia is unable to break any of us Ukrainians, they’re going to do all they can to come back to their diabolical initial plan to create a Russian-made famine around the world to spread death and chaos. And since our global food supply is already extremely damaged by warming temperatures and the coronavirus pandemic, Russia can successfully weaponise the global food supply crisis.

So, when you read or hear: “Russian president says he wants to revise the agreement to allow export of Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea”, that means Russia is ready to starve the most vulnerable countries by blocking grain exports and destroying Ukrainian crops.

Now, it is important to remember that prior to Putin starting this war in Ukraine, the world was not in a good place with food security to begin with. We’ve managed to survive, those of us who did, two years of the horrific worldwide pandemic, and we of course are clearly faced with the huge impacts of climate change.

Add Russia’s unprovoked barbaric offensive on one of the largest agricultural countries in the world and you’ve got yourself a recipe for disaster. Food insecurity is one of the biggest challenges our world faces and we need to be vigilant and aware, especially when Russia creates global food crises while spending millions to spread disinformation.

Pinpointing disinformation

Now, I want to share a few key points with you to help you pinpoint disinformation and understand who is starving your family, friends, and people and be ready to do something about it.

First, Russia is the ONLY country now trying to destroy the UN-brokered agreement for maritime grain exports from Ukraine. They are the ONLY country that is doing everything they can to create famine. They’ve already killed 50,000 of their soldiers in Ukraine, they lied to their own army telling them we will be greeting them with flowers, and just sent them to be burnt alive. If that is how they treat their own do you think they would give a single thought about the citizens of other countries? The answer is obvious.

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Second, when you see any Russian disinformation narratives about the causes of food insecurity, please remember that they are THE ONLY ONES blocking the food supply. Their absolutely laughable fairy tales about “Western desire for global dominance” are nonsensical as the West isn’t blocking ports in Odesa, RUSSIA IS.

Third, when Russia promises something along the lines of discounts for products they stole from Ukraine, please remember that they’ve broken every agreement they’ve made. For example, they once signed a Budapest Memorandum with a pledge to never attack Ukraine if we give up nuclear weapons. And then they’ve attacked Ukraine and are now trying, but are clearly failing, to hold the EU hostage by blackmailing them with turning off the gas so they’ll freeze during the winter. The EU has its gas storage more than 90% filled already, two months ahead of schedule, so, believe me, they’ll be just fine. I’m happy to state that I can’t say the same for Russia.

Fourth, when Russia promises you help and partnership, I urge everyone to remember that it is yet another lie. Until Russia’s invasion, Ukraine was one of the largest exporters of grains and vegetable oils, exporting grain to meet the needs of 400 million people worldwide. It is impossible for them to grow that much volume of crops — if they could, they would have done it by now.  So yes, Russia can and will promise you to fill that gap, but NO, they absolutely cannot. What they can do and are doing is using food as a weapon. Because of Russia’s disgusting, barbaric behaviour, up to 47 million more people could face acute food shortages in 2022, bringing the total to 323 million by the end of this year.

And fifth, not one sanction imposed by the international community has targeted food. There are statistics that show Russian grain exports this year are exactly similar to those in previous years, if you don’t count the grain they’ve stolen from us. But, because of the war they started, vulnerable countries aren’t getting enough grain from Ukraine. Check the statistics, the food isn’t sanctioned, Russia is lying. And I can assure you that when Putin stops his missiles shelling our farms and infrastructure, we will start to rebuild everything and return to supplying the world with its food.

To sum up

Russia has created food crises in the world and they are the ONLY ONES responsible for the global food security crisis and a high risk of multiple famines this year. None of it was happening before they attacked Ukraine.

Russia is the ONLY country that is using food as a weapon by blocking grain exports to vulnerable countries.

While Russia thinks it can use food as a weapon and threaten the world with famine, I can promise you we will do everything in our power to try to stop them. We are fighting those terrorists in Ukraine and we will stand up to terrorists worldwide. We are stronger when we stand together! #FoodIsNotAWeapon. DM