As Katrya Kalyuzhna fled her hometown of Kherson due to the Russian invasion, she grabbed the things most precious to her in the world: her two cats, of course; the keys to her van…

… and her precious, five-year-old sourdough starter.

"going through so many Russian checkpoints, their questioning and other disgusting things: driving through the gray zone, the no man’s land between occupied and Ukrainian held territory…the sound of artillery shelling, it was endless."

About a week after arriving in #Lviv, she tried to do what had always made her calm: baking Using the sourdough starter which she had brought along, she made what she dubbed her “bread in exile.”

#Baking, it turned out, was incredibly healing. She even posted the brief recipe on her Instagram, and other people started using it. The social media app led her to a new friend, a woman named Vasylyna, who also lived in Lviv.

She offered Katrya (left) a job in her microbakery.

While their story is heartwarming, wheat in Ukraine has a dark history too. During the Soviet-made famine known as Holodomor in the 1930s, millions of Ukrainians lost their lives after the USSR confiscated grain and food, trapping people in their homes to die of hunger.

Katrya feels there are echoes of that time in today’s war. She describes recent attacks on grain infrastructure in Odesa as “horrible and devastating.” A year ago, she watched as wheat fields burned near her hometown.

You can read Katrya's full story here: http://counteroffensive.news

Now for the news.

#Russia hit #Ukrainian grain facilities for the fifth time, its latest usage of hunger as a weapon. The overnight attacks in #Odesa killed at least one person. Meanwhile, 22 were injured, including four children.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/23/world/europe/odesa-cathedral-missile.html

Moscow withdrew from a UN-brokered grain deal that allowed the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea.

Ukraine's exports are a major source of food throughout the world, meaning that the expiration of the deal will lead to price shocks.

The grain destroyed by Russia this week could have fed tens of thousands of people for a year.

"Some will go hungry, some will starve, many may die as a result of these decisions," UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said.

Ukraine’s battered agricultural sector is thought to have lost around $34 billion since the full-scale war began. And Russian forces have destroyed farming infrastructure and grain storage facilities worth billions more - while vast swathes of farmland are heavily mined.

Ukraine and its Western allies knew that Kyiv didn't have the necessary training and weapons to dislodge the Russians from the front even as they started the counteroffensive this Spring.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraines-lack-of-weaponry-and-training-risks-stalemate-in-fight-with-russia-f51ecf9?mod=hp_lead_pos7

Hi, it’s Felicity Spector.

In my day job I’m a television journalist, and was first based in the former USSR back in 1991/1992. I’m also a keen amateur baker and like to photograph it all on Instagram.