Russia is weaponizing food supplies to 'blackmail the world'

Russian airstrikes hit a freight railcar repair factory in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on the weekend, a week after Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to facilitate the export of grain from Ukraine amid a worsening global food shortage and inflation crisis.

The latest attacks on the railcar factory — reportedly used to transport goods such as grain — have raised questions over the possibility Moscow could weaponize the supply of food. In so doing, it will exacerbate the global food shortage stemming from pandemic's disruption of supply chains as well as the effects of climate change.

Some analysts agree with comments made by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Russian President Vladimir Putin was "blackmailing" the world by holding food supplies hostage as part of his war strategy to end sanctions but others said the West, in looking to hold Putin accountable for Ukraine, had overreached by blaming Putin for everything.

Orysia Lutsevych, manager of the Ukraine Forum in the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House said the Russian leadership is a "mastermind of creating problems and blaming them on others."

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