Russian dictator Vladimir Putin could face new war crime charges and another arrest warrant. This time – because of planning a deliberate famine in Ukraine.
The relevant evidence was collected by human rights experts, The Independent reports.
According to these data, even months before Putin ordered a full-scale invasion, the Russian Federation was actively preparing to steal Ukrainian grain reserves and starve the Ukrainians to death .
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Planning for famine in Ukraine: what experts have found
The international human rights law firm Global Rights Compliance (GRC) conducted research on this issue.
According to her report, when Russian tanks crossed the Ukrainian state border on February 24, 2022, they “deliberately first targeted grain-rich areas and food production infrastructure.”
GRC found that the Russian defense contractor began purchasing grain transport trucks as early as December 2021, as well as three new bulk carriers (each vessel is 170 m long). This may indicate that the Russian Federation planned in advance the theft of Ukrainian food “on an unprecedented scale.”
Less than a week after the invasion, the Russian Federation began seizing Ukrainian farms. She stole up to 12 thousand tons of grain per day from temporarily occupied territories.
Photo: Pexels
GPS trackers on trucks stolen from farmers showed that the convoys were traveling through the temporarily occupied Crimea to Russia.
GRC experts provided the publication with satellite images that recorded grain trucks in Melitopol with license plates registered in Crimea. Other photos show carriages with the inscription “grain” that departed from the station in occupied Berdyansk.
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The market value of grain stolen in Ukraine is estimated at approximately $1 billion per year .
According to the GRC, the occupiers forcibly incorporated numerous private grain companies in Ukraine into the Russian state operator.
The GRC suggests that the Russian Federation was unable to quickly find truck drivers to transport the huge amount of food. This is evidenced by the job advertisements published by the occupiers.
The investigation into the theft of Ukrainian grain lasted until August 2023.
GRC senior lawyer Yusuf Syed Khan called Russia's use of grain as a weapon “unprecedented in modern history.”
Now the Russian Federation is calling on the UN and other states to ease the sanctions imposed because of the war. The aggressor is seeking to resume the export of grain from temporarily occupied territories to the countries most affected by the food crisis provoked by the Russian Federation.
“Russia does this to present itself as the “legitimate owner” of Ukrainian territories, which, in turn, also weakens the national economy of Ukraine,” noted Yusuf Khan.
Evidence for the International Criminal Court
All this evidence will be transferred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The GRC hopes this will lead to the first international prosecution against Putin for the war crime of using starvation as a method of warfare.
According to Global Rights Compliance partner Catriona Murdoch , it is “most likely” that Russia will be found guilty. In this case, the International Criminal Court may issue another arrest warrant for Putin .
“The Russian Federation not only took a multilateral approach, besieging civilians and destroying critical infrastructure, but also pre-planned the seizure and theft of Ukrainian agricultural products… Moscow provoked a global food crisis and attacked the agricultural sector of Ukraine, using this as a tactic of warfare,” said Catriona Murdoch .
First arrest warrant for Putin
In March, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for dictator Vladimir Putin on charges of forcibly deporting Ukrainian children to the Russian Federation.
As ICC prosecutor Karim Khan explained, the warrant is for life. It will remain in effect until the Russian dictator is brought to justice.
Putin could be arrested on the territory of more than 120 countries that have ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC.
