Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The Russian attack launched against Ukraine in fact has caused a domino effect for the food needs of the whole world. The reason is, Ukraine is a fairly high producer of food ingredients, but Moscow has blocked access to these commodities.
Most recently, Russia attacked a train factory that was usually used to transport goods such as grain. This is feared to be able to exacerbate global food shortages that have worsened due to supply chain disruptions, pandemics, and the impact of climate change.
Some analysts agree with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s comments that Putin is “blackmailing” the world by holding food supplies hostage as part of his war strategy to end sanctions from many countries.
Orysia Lutsevych, manager of the Ukraine Forum on Russia and the Eurasia Program at Chatham House, said the Russian leadership was behind the chaos, but was confident in blaming others.
“Putin has said that the West should lift sanctions to allow safe grain shipments and allow more Russian grain to reach world markets,” Lutsevych said.
“Yes, they will squeeze the world in and play around because of the increasing demand for grain and the risk of famine,” he added.
Russia’s attacks on major Ukrainian ports, such as Odessa and Mariupol in Ukraine at the beginning of the crisis, have halted the movement of trade and containers in the Black Sea.
According to Lutsevych, Russia not only crippled Ukraine’s capacity to export grain, but also blamed Ukraine for “mining”, or planting floating mines on the high seas.
However, analyst Frederick Kliem of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) sees it differently.
“Parts of the Western media and political elite are in an attempt to defame and isolate Putin and Russia whenever the opportunity presents itself. While the motives are understandable, the problem of food shortages should be viewed from that point of view,” Kleim said.
Meanwhile, Putin denied that the global food shortage was caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Instead, he attributed food disruptions and rising prices to the pandemic and the US and European countries fueling price inflation through over-stimulation.
“Firstly, the situation with the global food market did not get worse yesterday or even with the launch of the Russian special military operation in Donbas, in Ukraine,” Putin said during an interview with local media a few days before the attack.
The Donbas region includes the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk in southeastern Ukraine, most of which are under Russian separatist control.
“The situation went downhill in February 2020 in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic when the global economy was sluggish and had to be revived,” he added.
He said Russia did not stop Ukraine from delivering grain, regardless of whether the sea route was accessible or not. Putin also emphasized that Ukraine has many land transportation options.
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