DISINFO: The West deprives poor countries of food
SUMMARY
The West stores food (which it buys in the framework of the Black Sea grain deal) meaning that no more than 10% of Ukrainian food reaches poor countries.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative aiming to deflect Russia’s responsibility for the food crisis and supply insecurity by claiming that most of Ukraine's grains are sent to rich Western countries. This false allegation goes in line with a wider pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign aiming to shift the blame to Western countries for a global food crisis which is engineered by Russia as a result of its unjustified aggression against Ukraine.
This claim has been neither counterbalanced nor critically challenged in the article.
Russia's responsibility for the global food crisis comes as a consequence of the unprovoked and unjustified Russian invasion of Ukraine: naval blockade of Ukrainian posts, bombardment of transport infrastructure and shelling of farming regions. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has destabilised global food markets and is driving food prices up due to increased cost of production, transport and freight insurance. Russia has destroyed substantial food stocks, production, as well as processing and transport capacities in Ukraine.
As can be seen from the database of the UN Black Sea Grain Initiative, as of 6 March 2023, out of more than 850 shipments, less than half headed to EU countries, with none going to the United States, Australia or Canada. The majority headed for other countries like China, Turkey, Egypt, and India. Besides, this doesn’t mean that these are their final destinations, as grain will be redistributed from some of these harbours to other countries.
See other similar disinformation narratives in our database, such as claims that the EU is causing a global food shortage by keeping all the grain from Ukraine; Western sanctions cause a food crisis and price growth, that the food crisis has nothing to do with the Russian special operation, that Russia places no obstacles on the export of Ukrainian grain, or that Kyiv burned grains in Mariupol and mined the Black Sea to prevent its exportation.