Russia’s weaponisation of hunger

Ukrainian rescuers searching for survivors at a destroyed administrative building after a missile strike in the centre of Odesa last week. — AFP

ONE year ago, just as I arrived in the Ukrainian historic port city of Odesa, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to stop blockading Ukraine’s grain exports and fueling a famine in Africa and the Middle East.

The day after signing the UN-brokered deal, Russians shelled Odesa’s port facilities, as if to warn: “Don’t think this deal protects you.”