Russia, Ukraine and food warfare

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the international community has emphasized the repercussions of the war for food security, both locally and globally. However, less attention has been devoted to the role of food as a tool used by belligerents to achieve strategic and tactical goals. Drawing on existing research on food reliance and weaponization, this article introduces ‘food warfare’ as a conceptual framework to capture such dynamics. It identifies four structured practices through which food security is intentionally undermined—blockade, destruction, capture and contamination—and explores them with reference to the case of Ukraine. The article shows that the hostilities have involved extensive use of food warfare, with Russian forces seeking to deprive Ukrainians of sources of sustenance while gaining resources and international influence. Such findings have major implications, highlighting the need for counterstrategies to mitigate humanitarian repercussions while enhancing local resilience capacities. In so doing, the findings underscore the analytical utility of food warfare as a lens to identify, interpret and compare the manipulation of food supplies in contemporary conflicts.