Giving Under Siege

 

Went to a talk by the Ukrainian Ambassador to Singapore, Her Excellency (HE) Ms. Kateryna Zelenko at Duane Morris & Selvam LLP. The talk centered two years into the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022 was what you could call a pivotal moment in world history. This was what you could call the first invasion of a sovereign state by another on European soil since the Second World War. For the first time since 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, we actually had world powers looking at a conflict and helping “by proxy” rather than getting involved.

However, thanks to the Israeli invasion of the Gaza strip, the global focus and the questions about international law have inevitably moved from Ukraine to the Middle East. However, whilst the focus of global attention may have shifted from Ukraine to the Middle East since October 2023, the key issues that the world faces today haven’t gone away and they’re particularly visible in the war in Ukraine.

The key issue that the war in Ukraine and the war in the Middle East has thrown up, is the question of food security. The need to eat is an equalizer between social classes and ethnicities. While everyone is busy talking about the latest development in this and that when it comes to growing the economy, the reality is that the most basic industry and the backbone of any society is ultimately food production. Simply put – no point having a lot of money if there’s no food.

So, it goes without saying that in war situation where one party is trying to annihilate the other, the first thing they will do is to try and remove the ability of the other party to feed itself. One of the key issues of the Israeli invasion of Gaza is the fact that people in Gaza no longer have the ability to feed themselves. The same is true in Ukraine, where the Russians have attacked Ukraine’s ability to feed itself.

 There is a background to Ukraine and agriculture. The country is famously fertile and it was known as the “breadbasket” of both the Czarist Empire and the Soviet Union. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Ukraine was the in the top five global for exporting sunflower oil, corn and wheat in 2021:

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/07/ukraine-s-food-exports-by-the-numbers/

Again, agriculture tends to get overlooked when we talk about the industries of the future. However, the importance of agriculture to a society and an economy becomes apparent when the industry is no longer there. Hence, if you look at history of conquest, you will notice that one of the first things an invader does is to burn the farms in order to make them unusable. Once the farms are out, there are no crops and there’s no food.

So, what have the Ukrainians done. It was a surprise to find out that the Ukraine had a program called “Grain from Ukraine,” which was started in November 2022, or over ten months after the Russians invaded. The idea behind “Grain from Ukraine” is for the countries donating to the Ukraine to bring Ukrainian grain and send it to the parts of the world that need it. Details on the “Grain from Ukraine” program can be found in the following URL:

https://mfa.gov.ua/en/grain-ukraine

 

 In a way, you could say the idea of a country that is under invasion by a larger power giving away its grain to be insane. One might argue that the Ukrainians should be doing everything to keep their grain to themselves.

However, you could also argue that this is strategically brilliant. Work on the understanding that countries only help out when they have an interest to do so. By getting donor countries to export Ukrainian grain to the “needy” parts of the world, Ukraine is reminding the world why it should have an interest in helping the Ukrainians keep Ukraine, Ukrainian. This is a country that plays an important part in global food security. Ukraine is telling the world that it tries to use its agriculture power to keep the food flowing and that we want a reliable partner in the global food supply chain rather than one who could happily blackmail the rest of us if he had control over so much of the world’s grain production.

Let’s face it, Ukraine has held out for so long because its had help. Russia is the vastly larger power and Ukraine does need all the help it can get. In the initial stages of the war, there were a lot of emotional reasons to support Ukraine. However, when the war in Gaza started, the emotions turned to the Middle East. However, when the “Grain from Ukraine” program, there is a very rational reason for outsiders to ensure that the Ukraine is able to hold its own and keep control of its vast agricultural production.

Being a “good guy” particularly when you’re not in the best position to do anything for yourself let alone the rest of the world is tough. However, the Ukrainians might have just proven that doing good whilst they are under siege is not just morally correct but smart. The rest of us can learn from that.