Ukraine War — Day 531
While the war in the killing fields remains stalemated, the focus of conflict has moved to the food supply chain, threatening a new global food crisis. Food has become the weapon of war in Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin has told African leaders that Russia would send free grain to replace Ukrainian grain exports to Africa. That offer drew an incredible response from Joseph Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief.
Borrell is quoted, as telling Africans to “go hungry” rather than accept Russia’s free grain offer.
While the quote was later pulled from Borrell’s page, it is most telling about the EU’s patronizing attitude towards the continent they had once colonized and enslaved and continue to exploit.
“By accepting free Russian grain you will give up independence. They are trying to revive slavery in a free land, to bring you to your knees. You have to choose between hunger and human dignity. — Joseph Borrell
Following a chain of events that had Ukraine blowing up the Crimean Bridge and Russia pulling back from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Russia and Ukraine have been attacking each other’s grain silos, ships, and export hubs and are threatening to escalate the NATO/Russia proxy war beyond Ukraine’s borders and into Africa and the Persian Gulf.
In the almost 18 months since the Russian attack on Ukraine began, Russia’s ability to export commodities has been affected principally by sanctions. Europe banned most imports of the country’s oil, while the G-7 imposed a price cap that restricts Moscow’s petroleum sales.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has threatened a nuclear attack and warned that Moscow will launch more strikes against Ukrainian ports in response to Kyiv’s attacks on Russian ships in the Black Sea and threatened to hand Ukraine “an ecological catastrophe.”
The only glimmer of hope for a negotiated peace (and it’s a tiny glimmer) comes from the ongoing peace talks now taking place between 40 countries, including many in the emerging non-aligned movement.
From the Jeddah meeting on Peace in Ukraine
“The consensus is that this isn’t a European war, but has an impact on food, energy, and economic stability globally and that it will take everyone on board to get to the final outcome of a settlement,” said a diplomat from one of the non-Western countries. —WSJ