What I didn’t know was that Putin is doing it again, now. According to reports from on the ground:
Now, almost a century later, soldiers have once more been sent by Moscow to seize Ukrainian grain. Once more, farmers are killed and their barns and stores looted. And once more, the Ukrainian people are being made to pay for the madness of their neighbouring Tsar. [More...]
I knew that Ukraine was breadbasket to the world. About 25% of the world’s wheat. What I didn’t know was that this is grown on famous “black soils” about 2% of world’s soil, of which Ukraine has a quarter. So... not easy to shift production.
I knew that Ukraine was going to have problems with the next harvest as they can’t get fertiliser, not to mention being surrounded by war. What I didn’t know was they they have 380 million tonnes waiting to be shipped which can’t be shipped because Russian troops are controlling the ports. And the major country to suffer will be Egypt. That I didn’t know.
There’s a lot of good stuff in this article, Putin’s plan to starve the world. It seems Egypt is in dire straits. If it doesn’t get Ukrainian wheat, there will be starvation there too.
ADDED: Professor Naimark says that Stalin has not a hint of remorse or pity when millions of Ukrainians die in the famine. “It's their own fault”, he says. Is Putin the same? “We invaded you carried out a 'special military operation' inside your country because you wanted to join NATO. Your fault!”
Echoes from a century ago....
