The Washington-backed Conflict Observatory report highlights the adverse effects on global food security.
About 15% of Ukraine’s grain storage capacity has been lost since the start of the war with Russia, according to an American report on Thursday, September 15, which underlines the harmful effects for world food security. Since the start of the war, access to silos and other storage space representing about 8.5 million tonnes of grain has been lost by Ukraine, according to the estimate of the Washington-backed Conflict Observatory.
Of the approximately 58 million tons in storage capacity in Ukraine, the Russians took control of 6.24 million and 2.25 million were destroyed, the report said. These significant losses call into question Ukraine’s ability to continue its role as breadbasket for many countries, which depend on the country for their supplies of wheat, corn and sunflower in particular.
According to the Conflict Observatory, this lack of space is making it difficult for Ukrainian farmers, who are struggling to store their harvest this year, to stockpile – and could also deter them from planting for next season. “Damage and seizures carried out by Russia and its allies on Ukraine’s grain storage capacities threaten to turn the current crisis in Ukrainian agriculture into a disaster“, note the authors.
Satellite image analysis
“Millions of people around the world rely on Ukrainian agricultural products and are directly affected by the sharp rise in prices on the commodity market, caused by shortages linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.“, can we still read in this report.
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In particular, a unit of the prestigious Yale University and a laboratory dependent on the American Department of Energy have contributed to this estimate. Its conclusions come from satellite images analyzed by algorithms which produce estimates on the destruction of installations, such as silos.
The bulk of the affected areas are those of Mykolaiv (south), Zaporizhia (south) and Donetsk (east), and many affected buildings were located near logistics nodes, suggesting according to the report that they were targeted deliberately. “Indiscriminate targeting of agricultural storage facilities may constitute a war crime and a crime against humanity under international lawfinally notes the Conflict Observatory.