DISINFO: Ukraine and Europe are attacking global food security
SUMMARY
Kyiv and its European allies are threatening global food security by opposing the easing of restrictions on Russian wheat and fertiliser exports, a commitment Washington made in recent talks with Moscow, while supply shortages are driving up international food prices.
RESPONSE
This is a disingenuous attempt to stir up anti-Ukraine and anti-EU sentiment through baseless accusations and the distortion of facts regarding sanctions and food security. Pro-Kremlin disinformation has been regularly promoting this narrative since the start of the Ukraine invasion in 2022.
The claim is demonstrably false, as Russian exports of food and fertiliser are not subject to Western sanctions. However, Russia has tried to portray restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance as a barrier to shipments, and demanded their removal. Given that Russia remains the world’s top wheat and fertiliser exporter despite these restrictions, and that it has used these exports as ways to circumvent sanctions on other fields, this fresh allegation is nothing but a fraudulent attempt to get sanctions lifted, which the EU opposes.
While it is true that global food prices were at a historic peak when this disinformation story appeared in late March 2025, this had been the case since the autumn of 2024, mostly caused by the rise in the price of vegetable oils, according to data published by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation. Therefore, this peak is unrelated to the US-Russia negotiations and the reaction of Ukraine and Europe to them.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that EU sanctions undermine global food security, that the West provoked the food crisis, that the EU is causing a global food shortage by keeping all the grain from Ukraine, or that the food crisis has nothing to do with the Russian special operation.