Ukraine is known as a breadbasket region. It plays an important role in the overall production of food crops like wheat.
In 2020, McKinsey Global Institute published an article with extensive research on the significant loss of crops in a breadbasket region and the effect it has on the global food chain.
Vladimir Putin has been strategetic in targeting Ukraine’s “grain silos, tractors and fields”.
“Ukrainian farmers are unable to plant their crops due to the war. Hunger is being used as an instrument of war. In February, Russia halted the export of many types of grain,” writes Katja Keul and Niels Annen for News24.
How does this affect the global community?
We’ve seen the damaging effect hunger can bring to the global community. Since the invasion of Ukraine in February, food prices have skyrocketed. “The global price of wheat has increased by one third, and the already high cost of fertiliser has risen even more sharply.”
Keul and Annen further write that Russia maintains the rise in wheat prices is due to European sanctions on Moscow. In actuality, there isn’t a single penalty targeting food supplies. President Putin’s war of aggression has prompted Europe and the West to impose targeted sanctions on individuals in Moscow who devised the plans for devastation.
“Driving up prices for wheat, creates more hunger, suffering and instability across the globe.”
Remaining neutral isn’t a solution. It’s a luxury that leads to hunger and affects mostly vulnerable communities.
Here’s a roundup of interesting opinions, analyses, and editorials:
Katja Keul and Niels Annen: Russia is using hunger as instrument of war – News24
ROB ROSE: How Comair made a bad situation worse – Financial Mail (for subscribers)
Cyril Ramaphosa | SA economy a diverse playground for investors – News24
South Africa must establish a Second Republic – Daily Maverick
Three reasons the United Nations cannot intervene in Russia’s war on Ukraine – Mail & Guardian
The economic cost of SA’s mental health crisis – Business Day (for subscribers)
