Putin is using food as a weapon – but his cynical attempts to drum up forced allies will fail

‘Hours after withdrawing from the Black Sea grain initiative, Russia started to destroy Ukraine’s grain storage facilities.’ Clean up operation after Russian rocket attacks on grain stores near Odesa, 24 July. Photograph: Scott Peterson/Getty Images

On 17 July, nearly one year after the agreement was signed in Istanbul, Russia decided not to renew the Black Sea grain initiative (BSGI) that allows Ukraine to continue exporting agricultural goods to global markets during the war. As underlined by António Guterres, the secretary general of the UN, this initiative has been “a beacon of hope in a world that desperately needs it”.

Before Russia’s war of aggression, Ukraine was a critical global food supplier: a fifth of the world’s barley came from Ukraine, as well as a sixth of the maize and an eighth of wheat. After Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, attacking grain fields and silos and blocking Ukrainian ports, global food prices spiked to record levels and endangered much-needed food supply for many importer countries. The BSGI aimed to re-establish a vital route for agricultural exports from Ukraine and to lower global food prices.