The manipulation of food security, torture by starvation, and mass extermination practices have always been used by Moscow to assert its power and break the will of those who resisted. This happened in the previous state project, the Soviet Union, when Ukrainians were destroyed by artificial famine, first of all. This is happening now, when Russia is destroying Ukrainian grain, on which food security in the world depends radically, and thus puts a number of third world countries on the brink of survival. How is the Kremlin instrumentalizing the famine and what are its goals? Let us tell you briefly.

On August 31, 2024, photojournalists Konstantin and Vlada Liberov posted on Instagram photos of the Ukrainian soldiers recently released from Russian captivity. Their bodies show signs of torture, poor sanitary conditions, and inadequate medical care. It is also very striking that the yesterday's prisoners are very exhausted. The first thing that comes to mind when you see these modern photographs is the condition of those released from Nazi death camps at the end of World War II. So the situation when Ukrainian prisoners of war end up in similar concentration camps is repeating itself. The Liberovs' photos were not the first and, unfortunately, not the last of their kind as there are many such photos and videos. What's terrible is that hunger is only part of the abuse that prisoners endure.

Below is a photo of Ukrainian defenders after Russian captivity. Authors: photojournalists Kostiantyn and Vlada Liberov.

The Ukrainian soldiers who have been captured by Russia testify that one of the forms of torture they had to endure was malnutrition. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine interviewed formerly captured Ukrainians. More than 80% of them complained about the poor quality of food and its shortage in captivity, as well as the fact that it was deliberately withheld. This caused the prisoners to endure physical pain and suffering.

“Torture also consisted of the fact that the prisoners were given too little time to eat, food became an instrument of humiliation as it was served in dirty dishes, thrown directly on the floor, etc.”, says Eva Katinka Schmidt, Head of the Justice, Freedoms and Civil Society Department of the Monitoring Mission.

International humanitarian law requires that prisoners be treated humanely and with dignity. The Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, adopted in 1929, stipulates that “daily food rations shall be of sufficient quality, nutritiousness and variety to keep prisoners of war from losing weight, from becoming ill and from suffering from the development of nutrient deficiencies.”

The Convention does not specify how much protein, fat and carbohydrates prisoners should receive per day. However, the weight loss, deterioration of the health of the military in captivity and their general appearance demonstrate the real situation.

In fact, this cruel way of keeping prisoners is quite convenient for those who hold them. On the one hand, people are being fed, so it's hard to blame them. But they give out such a ration of food that people are in a depressed state on the verge of physical survival. This is one way to humiliate and abuse people. In this way, prisoners are put under moral and physical pressure and deprived of the opportunity to maintain their dignity in captivity.

This is not a new phenomenon for the Russian penal system. Starvation rations and deaths from malnutrition are described in almost all memoirs of Soviet concentration camp prisoners. In one of his books, Soviet and Russian writer and journalist Yulian Semenov tells about a meeting with Stalin where they discussed the Gulag system. In response to the remark that prisoners were malnourished, there were proposals to eliminate up to 10% of them, which could slightly increase the nutritional rate for those who survived.

In 1932-1933, the Soviet government organized an artificial famine. This is a very telling example of how food was used to control people and achieve political and economic goals. Similar methods were used by the government in other regions where it was necessary to subdue the population or change its demography and social structure. We are talking about the Kuban and Kazakhstan, some regions of Russia where the wealthy peasantry was represented. But the famine had the most severe impact on Ukrainian peasants. According to various estimates, 3 to 7 million of them died during the Holodomor.

It is noteworthy that Ukrainian black soil is fertile, the country has a favorable climate and centuries of agricultural tradition. None of this could have led to the famine by natural causes.

The primary goals pursued by the Stalinist regime when it organized the famine at that time remain a matter of debate for historians. However, the consequences and benefits that the Soviet government of the time gained from the starvation of millions of people are obvious.

The acceleration of industrialization was only part of it. Another important component is the demographic and social changes in the population of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, or Ukrainian SSR (an entity that included Ukrainian territories controlled by the Soviet government). Overcoming the resistance to collectivization and undermining the political capacities of the literally exhausted Ukrainian peasantry became one of the ways for the Soviet authorities to complete the construction of a totalitarian system of government.

Food shortages in the world are one of the key challenges of our time. It has social, economic, and environmental dimensions. According to the UN, more than 735 million people in the world suffer from chronic hunger. The situation is particularly critical in sub-Saharan Africa and in some regions of Asia.

Obviously, Ukraine plays a key role in overcoming hunger in the world thanks to its position among food exporters. Grains and oilseeds, animal feed are the main items among the needs, and they can be largely met by Ukrainian exports.

According to the State Statistics Service, in 2021, more than 48.5 million tons of grain were exported by sea. In February-January 2022, it was almost 1.4 million tons. Russia is actively trying to use this factor in its invasion of Ukraine. Moscow's actions have direct and indirect consequences.

The direct consequences include the occupation of a large part of the territory with a significant part of agricultural land; large-scale mining of agricultural land; destruction of agricultural machinery and infrastructure for storage, processing and transportation of agricultural products.

The indirect consequences include complication of logistics routes for agricultural exports, outflow of workers, increased risks and, as a result, higher insurance premiums, and reduced investment in long-term projects.

According to the Kyiv School of Economics, by the end of 2022, more than 84,000 pieces of machinery and equipment had been completely or partially destroyed.

Below is a photo of Ukrainian harvests in frontline areas, 2024. Authors: photojournalists Kostiantyn and Vlada Liberov.

The aggressor country's strategy in this case is to achieve two major goals:

1. To deprive Ukraine of the ability to produce agricultural products on a possible scale and to generate income for producers, agricultural workers, and landowners. As well as significant foreign exchange earnings for the state budget.
2. To cut Ukraine out of the food supply chain for regions in need and dictate its own terms.

Restricting the ability to export the Ukrainian grain crops through unoccupied Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea is a part of the Kremlin's diplomatic game and its way of dictating its terms.

At the same time, Russia does not miss the opportunity to demonstrate the cynicism of its position. On July 22, 2022, the Black Sea Grain Initiative was signed between Russia and the United Nations (UN) with the participation of Turkey, and between Ukraine and the UN with the participation of Turkey, with the aim of unblocking three Ukrainian ports for the food exports. The very next day, July 23, Russia fired four Kalibr missiles at the port of Odesa. The shelling of port infrastructure has not stopped to this day.

Russia will not stop trying to use hunger as a lever of influence. Because the tragedy of the Holodomor was allowed by the international community in the twentieth century and has not been properly reflected upon, the world is facing the threat of a new great famine. But on the scale of other continents.