Polish EU commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski likens the Russian bombing of Ukraine's agricultural structure to the infamous Russian starvation of the 1930s.
According to him, Russia is deliberately targeting destruction of food supplies to starve Ukraine, drawing parallels with the then Great Famine, the “Holodomor”.
“There is only one interpretation left: they want to induce hunger and use that as a method of aggression.” Wojciechowski said Russia deliberately attacked large poultry farms. According to Wojciechowski, Russia used the food as a “weapon”. Lithuanian Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said Russia "appears to be deliberately attacking and destroying Ukraine's food supplies and storage facilities."
It is 'not the first time' that the Russians have used the hunger weapon. Wojciechowski said Russia's current crackdown is similar to the method Soviet leader Joseph Stalin used against Ukraine and Kazakhstan in the 1930s.
The Holodomor is a combination of the Ukrainian words for 'starve' and 'cause death'. Since 2006, Ukraine and 15 other countries have recognized the Holodomor as a genocide committed by the Soviet government against the Ukrainian people.
Ukraine's Agriculture Minister Roman Leshchenko said on Monday that Ukrainian food companies are on the brink of collapse. Their reserves are expected to be exhausted within a month or two, he said. To help Ukraine, the European Commission has launched a EUR 330 million EU emergency aid program to ensure access to essential goods.
For example, the Poles are going to supply millions of liters of diesel fuel every day for the Ukrainian tractors; the bill is paid by the EU.
Because the Russian navy in the Black Sea has blocked Ukrainian ports, halting grain exports, work is now also underway on overland grain transport to the northern Polish ports of Gdansk and Gdynia on the Baltic Sea, Wojciechowski revealed at a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday.