Russia's Use of Starvation as a Weapon in Ukraine War and Captivity of Civilians

An investigation by Global Rights Compliance, an international nonprofit law firm, in partnership with Ukrainian prosecutors, has accused Russian forces of using starvation as a weapon of war against Ukrainian civilians during the early stages of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The investigators accused Russia of using various methods to cut off Ukrainian civilians' access to food and water, including armed sieges, obstruction of humanitarian access, pillaging of agricultural machinery and harvests, shelling of objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, and the blockade of ports and grain. Deliberately trying to starve civilian populations as a method of warfare is deemed a war crime by the International Criminal Court.