DISINFO: The European Holodomor in Ukraine is coming
SUMMARY
The European Holodomor in Ukraine is becoming a reality. Last year's [grain] stock have already been taken out of the country. An upcoming spring sowing in the mine fields will not bring good harvest. Irresponsible sanctions adopted by western amateurs have hit global food security hard. The situation was stabilised thanks to Ukrainian grain which was sold to cover the debts accumulated from supplies of arms and industrial goods.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation about the situation regarding the export of Ukrainian grain and the war in Ukraine, aiming to shift the blame for the global food insecurity and price increases to Ukraine and the Western countries.
Holodomor was a man-made famine orchestrated in Soviet Ukraine and some other areas under Soviet control that killed millions of Ukrainians. The Holodomor in Ukraine in 1932-1933 is confirmed by a huge array of declassified documents, including official documents of the Soviet authorities and the Communist Party.
Russia’s war strategy in the large-scale war against Ukraine, which included the blockade of Ukrainian ports, has drawn parallels with the Holodomor. See a collection of earlier disinformation cases concerning the Holodomor.
The Ukrainian grain was not sold to cover the debts, as alleged. It was exported by the Ukrainian authorities – to the extent it was possible to do given that Russian warships for some time were blocking Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea, and Russian military forces destroyed substantial food stocks, production, as well as processing and transport capacities in Ukraine.
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. The World Bank called it a human catastrophe.
See other similar disinformation narratives in our database, such as claims that Western sanctions cause 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.