The West must prevent Russia’s attempts to create a global food crisis. Russia are losing on the battlefield, unable to oppose anything either to the tactics of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or to modern Western weapons used by Ukrainian military personnel at the front. That is why the Kremlin is returning to food blackmail. It uses Dmitry Peskov’s mouth, the Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, who threatens to withdraw from the grain deal, which expires on May 18, 2023. For this purpose, a meeting of the Deputy Ministers of Defense of Ukraine, Turkey and Russia is planned in Istanbul on May 5. The prolongation of grain exports from Ukraine will be the topic of negotiations.
Ukrainian grain is critical to ensure the food security of countries that are dependent on food imports. Political stability in virtually all countries in Africa, as well as in the Middle East, depends on food security. Putin is trying to provoke a global famine: blocking the Ukrainian grain exports will hit the poorest countries in the world. The famine will lead to a worsening of the socio-economic situation, which will provoke another wave of refugees from Africa to the countries of the European Union.
The Russian Federation wants to use refugees as a method of waging a hybrid war against the West. In order to protect themselves from this phenomenon, the countries of Europe must use all available levers of influence on Moscow so that the Black Sea Grain Initiative is extended for the previously agreed period.