How Putin planned new Holodomor in Ukraine

GRC experts plan to submit to the International Criminal Court evidence of a "highly coordinated level of pre-planning" for the deliberate famine in Ukraine and hope that this will lead to the first international prosecution of Putin for the war crime of "using starvation as a method of warfare."

According to experts, when Russian tanks crossed the border on February 24, 2022, they deliberately targeted grain-rich areas and food production infrastructure first. Numerous private Ukrainian grain companies were forcibly incorporated into the Russian state-owned operator.

GRC found that a Russian defense contractor began purchasing trucks for grain transportation, as well as three new 170-meter dry cargo trucks, as early as December 2021. This indicates a plan to steal Ukrainian food "on an unprecedented scale" (Yousuf Syed Khan, senior lawyer at the company).

It noted that Russia had begun to control Ukrainian farms a week after its invasion, and at its peak, it was exporting 12,000 tons of grain per day from all occupied territories. The market value of the stolen grain is $1 billion a year. "Russia not only used a multifaceted approach, besieging civilians and destroying critical infrastructure, but also planned in advance to seize and steal Ukrainian agricultural products. Moscow has provoked a global food crisis and attacked Ukraine's agricultural sector, using it as a tool of war," said Catriona Murdoch, partner at Global Rights Compliance.

This statement falls under the "common knowledge" category, but the key element here is the availability of meticulously documented evidence for legal proceedings. It serves as one of the indisputable and well-documented arguments that will impede Russia's endeavors to lift any of the sanctions.

Russia's rhetoric on all international platforms has now changed to the level of "we did nothing wrong, everything was civilized, we have nothing to be punished for. And those who say that we did - they have no evidence, it's all falsification, Bucha, Irpin, Izyum..."

Well, this is also evidence that Russia is a war criminal. And there is no reason to ease sanctions in the slightest.

Source

About the author. Oleksiy Holobutskyi, political scientist.

The editors do not always share the opinions expressed by the blog authors.