BRUSSELS, September 24 — Russia is systematically strangling Ukraine’s agricultural exports across the Black Sea, the Danube River and overland corridors, targeting shipping, ports and warehouses as Ukraine moves through its harvest season, according to the European Union. Missile and drone strikes have trapped grain inside the country and cut exports in half. Over 9 million tonnes could rot by November because of destroyed storage, a loss the EU says would trigger agricultural shortages and drive up global prices well into 2027.
Before the invasion, Ukraine supplied 15 per cent of global corn exports, 10 per cent of wheat and 50 per cent of sunflower oil, making it a vital supplier to regions such as North Africa and the Middle East. The EU frames the campaign as a deliberate weaponisation of food against millions of vulnerable people across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and, indirectly, the Pacific.
An estimated 645 million people face hunger globally. Vulnerable communities, the EU argues, are the least able to absorb another artificial supply shock. The disruption reaches far beyond the Black Sea littoral.
Pacific communities rely heavily on imported essential goods, including food and fuel, because of their physical remoteness, leaving households there uniquely exposed to global flashpoints and the price shocks they generate. Rising prices filter into grocery bills, transport costs and household budgets, straining food security, nutrition, health and wellbeing.
Climate change and intensifying natural disasters compound those pressures and further erode Pacific resilience.
Solidarity Lanes and the limits of land routes
The European Union is working to mitigate the impact. Through its “Solidarity Lanes,” it has opened alternative land routes to move Ukrainian grain to global markets. But the EU describes land routes as a temporary band-aid.
They cannot replace safe navigation in the Black Sea, which handles 90 per cent of Ukraine’s agricultural trade. An immediate arrangement is required to allow the safe passage of vessels, according to the EU position.
Geographically, Ukraine and the Pacific are oceans apart, but the EU says the geopolitical stakes are identical. Universal principles of peace, sovereignty and territorial integrity are core to the Pacific way of life and guided the historic Blue Pacific Ocean of Peace Declaration. Pacific leaders have long made clear that global disputes must be resolved through dialogue, in pursuit of long-lasting peace and security.
The EU says it greatly values the Pacific countries that stand up for international law and consistently voice support for Ukraine’s sovereignty on the global stage. Distance does not diminish solidarity, in the EU’s framing.
The bloc says it will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine for as long as it takes, and that an unconditional ceasefire leading to a just and lasting peace requires collective pressure. Ukraine has consistently demonstrated its readiness for peace, calling for an unconditional ceasefire since the early days of the invasion, the EU states, while Russia continues to escalate its aggression.
What to watch next is whether an arrangement for safe navigation in the Black Sea materialises before the November storage deadline, and whether Pacific governments answer the EU’s call to keep standing with it. Ending the war, the EU argues, protects Ukrainian lives and helps preserve the predictable global trading conditions that underpin economic resilience across the Pacific.
