International human rights foundation and law firm, Global Rights Compliance (GRC) recently released a landmark report, which examines the appropriation of Ukrainian grain by Russian forces in the occupied regions of the country.
According to GRC’s report, ‘Agriculture Weaponised’, there is significant evidence of pre-planning by Russian forces to pillage and weaponise $1billion dollars’ worth of Ukrainian grain every year, the proceeds of which likely used to help to fund Russia’s war effort. The report utilises cutting-edge open source research to analyse and verify photographs, videos, public statements by officials, and other digital data to examine the extraction of grain from Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia. The report illustrates a large-scale and organised system, including convoys of stolen trucks and rapidly refurbished railway systems transporting Ukrainian grain to Russia-controlled ports, where it was shipped internationally on grain carrier ships purchased just before Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The report notes that this theft has taken place in the context of a broader weaponisation of Ukrainian grain by Russia, including successive attacks on non-occupied ports throughout the war and their recent withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative. Agriculture Weaponised aims to raise awareness of the apparent scale and systematicity of the theft of Ukrainian grain, and it notes that the European Union’s restrictive measures may be expanded to include individuals and organisations involved in this theft, such as those mentioned in the report.
The Communication Group plc supported the release of ‘Agriculture Weaponised’ with a tailored media campaign building awareness of both the report and its findings. Coverage was secured across UK-, European-, and US-national media, including highlights in The Telegraph, The Independent, Newsweek, BBC Ukraine, Kyiv Independent, and Moscow Times, among others.
