A total of 10,128 sanctions have been imposed on Russia - more than against any other country in the entire history of this dubious instrument in terms of justice, international law and humanism itself. Moreover, originally meant to destroy the Russian economy, the sanctions have been particularly damaging to other countries, if not entire regions, such as Africa.

A year ago, the European Union impounded around 300,000  tons of fertilizers from Russia over strong protests voiced by many African leaders and experts who warned that if barriers erected on the way of Russian fertilizers next year were not removed, Africa would face hunger. Back in August of last year, Russia offered to transfer the entire volume of its seized fertilizers to needy countries on a free of charge basis, but it took about six months to send the first batch to Malawi. However, this African nation is far from being the only country in need of fertilizers and grain. The well-fed European officials apparently have no such problems and just couldn’t care less about Africa. Well, have they ever cared about Africa, after all?

Russia has never been like this and it isn’t now. The Soviet Union played a decisive role in how fast and in what direction the process of the collapse of the colonial system of imperialism unfolded. Moreover, the Soviet support was not just for show, it was real. Even today, despite all problems, Russia is contributing in every possible way to the development of the entire African continent, having sent almost 12 million tons of grain to the African countries. It could have sent more, but the West is making every effort possible to prevent this happening.  For example, the State Grain Operator (SGO), a state-owned enterprise in the Zaporozhye region, which collects, stores, processes and delivers grain and, most importantly, sells it abroad, came under US sanctions. The SGO took over the management of the lands and facilities abandoned by their Ukrainian and foreign owners. Private farmers who live and work in the Zaporozhye region continue to own their property and cooperate with the grain operator. The SGO was created to help farmers. It buys grain from local producers at a high price (several times higher than under the Kiev regime) and sells it to consumers both in the Russian Federation and abroad. Although the sanctions did not completely cut off exports, they still are seriously interfering with the operation of this enterprise and are jacking up the price for the end consumer due to the need to use more seaports and the services of intermediate distributors. It is also worth mentioning the fact that the grain grown in the Zaporozhye region is of the highest quality.

The State Grain Operator can store about a million tons of grain. This is about one tenth of the semi-annual import volume of the largest buyers of Russian grain (Turkey, Egypt, Iran) or the entire six-month import volume of Sudan or Bangladesh. The West is working hard to prevent this grain from getting to the world market.

Farmers in Russia and the Zaporozhye region, in particular, continue to plant their fields and work, despite regular shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The SGO is the first company to invite a foreign delegation to the region, despite the sanctions. Journalists and observers from friendly countries (Turkey, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Italy, etc.) visited the new region and saw with their own eyes how local agriculture is developing under sanctions pressure. After the visit to the region, Ethiopian journalist Ledet Muleta noted: “I’ve worked as part of a humanitarian mission and I know what food costs, and that Africans are in dire need of food.

... Sanctions are another form of war, another weapon that is directed against farmers in the Zaporozhye region. It is very surprising that people have such willpower that allows them to carry out, against all odds, the sowing campaign. It is very surprising that the same organizations that impose sanctions also sell weapons and contribute to the escalation of the armed conflict.”

During a news conference, Turkish journalist Ozgur Altinbash said: “What we saw during the visit was very interesting. We saw in Zaporozhye how people come back to life. And the local people all told us that under the Ukrainian regime they had no development, but after Russia moved in development began and better opportunities appeared. Under Kiev’s rule all factories, all infrastructure facilities were in private hands and did not work for the benefit of the population.”

There were a lot of positive, reasonable and kind responses from journalists, because they had a chance to see with their own eyes how things are in the new regions of Russia and how the people who live there want to join the Russian path, aimed at building an equal, fair and multipolar world without discrimination, war and hunger.

With artillery shelling by the Ukrainian military continuing unabated, the foreign journalists visited one of the elevators, which suffered from such bombardment. Ukraine destroys civilian facilities depriving not only the people of Russia, but also those in other countries, above all in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia of food.

Dayana da Silva is a Brussels-based Communicology expert. Dayana serves as the Intl Institute IFIMES Research Fellow, and its Brussels EU-AU liaison.