After the full-scale invasion, the Russian Federation tried to cause famine in Ukraine at least three times.

This is stated in the material of The Guardian.

Hunger as a weapon

It is noted that prosecutors and human rights activists want to document cases where the Russian occupiers used starvation as a weapon of war in order to provide evidence to the ICC.

In particular, to this end, next year the law firm Global Rights Compliance will work with Ukrainian prosecutors to create a dossier. The goal is to file a declaration under Article 15 of the Rome Statute, which allows third parties to send information about alleged war crimes to the ICC prosecutor.

The main goal of the lawyers is to achieve an indictment for Russian President Vladimir Putin, as happened in March, when the ICC issued an arrest warrant for the President of the Russian Federation for the crime of illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia from the occupied territories.

The lawyer says that the same can be said about crimes related to hunger.

Hunger in three stages

Yusuf Khan, Senior Lawyer at Global Rights Compliance, said that the aggressor began to use hunger against Ukrainians immediately after the start of a full-scale war, when Ukrainian cities were besieged and food supplies stopped.

This is evidenced by the deaths of 20 civilians in Chernihiv on the morning of March 16, 2022, when Russian shrapnel bombs exploded near a supermarket where Ukrainians were queuing for bread.

In addition, investigators are documenting the crimes of the Russian Federation during the siege of Mariupol.

"Food supplies to the city have been cut off and humanitarian aid corridors have been blocked or bombed, making it very difficult or impossible for civilians to leave," the statement said.

The second phase is the destruction of objects necessary for the survival of the civilian population. The occupiers tried to destroy food and water supplies, as well as energy sources throughout Ukraine during the fighting.

"If you destroy objects necessary for the civilian population, such as energy infrastructure in the dead of winter, then your actions are planned," the lawyer said

The third stage is Russia's attempts to prevent or restrict the export of Ukrainian food products.

"Then we saw Russia attacking grain facilities on the Danube and flexing its muscles on the Black Sea," Khan said.

According to Ukrainian officials, 270,<> tons of food were destroyed in late July and early August.

"Putin may be held responsible for committing these crimes directly, in conjunction with others, and/or through others, as well as for failing to exercise proper control over the Russian military or other individuals accused of specific criminal acts," the lawyer argues.

Instead, they may face food shortages, as companies linked to the recently deceased leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, still have significant control over the production of rations and other food.

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