One eye on the shelves, the other on the phone: shopping while monitoring the advance of Russian drones over kyiv has become a habit for Maksym Tarasenko. But this caffeine addict is plagued. “There is absolutely no more Coca-Cola, not even an equivalent,” laments the 26-year-old young man. In a supermarket of the Ukrainian brand Silpo, his favorite soda has disappeared from the shelves - the fault, again, of Russian bombings. Last month, Maksym points out, “there were no more potatoes, cereals and some vegetables were missing.”
Over the last nine months, civilian warehouses in the kyiv region have suffered three times more Russian bombings than during the first four years of invasion, two thirds of which since the beginning of August, according to an AFP analysis based on data from the NGO Acled, specializing in the analysis of armed conflicts, as of September 18.
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High tension races
This campaign “strongly disrupted, or even rendered ineffective” the model of large brands based on centralized logistics platforms, recognized the Ukrainian Minister of Food, Taras Vysotsky. He called on brands to decentralize their logistics, rely on short supply circuits, smaller warehouses or located in neighboring countries.
Hard hit, the Fozzy group, owner of Silpo, announced in early August that it was reorganizing its logistics. Today, despite the disappearance of certain brands, supermarkets have found color again: carefully stacked fruits, garish promotions, little candid music... Customers, however, stare nervously at their phones. Above the capital, a thick cloud of smoke rises; drones just hit a market near the central station.
For Maksym, Moscow is trying to “create widespread panic among civilians.” The first shortages caused a rush on certain products, with residents seeking to stock up before winter, he recalls. Tells him to stay calm. “A small market is setting up near my house. I sometimes buy basic products there, it’s a little cheaper.” And if the situation deteriorates further, he has already identified a producer in the provinces from whom he can obtain potatoes.
Inflation and risk of shortages
About ten kilometers away, in the suburbs of kyiv, firefighters are working around an immense skeleton of charred metal. Among the melted metal sheets a few cans, bottles of oil, packets of salt. Just the day before, the building served as a warehouse for the ECO Market brand. According to economist Oleg Pendzyne, these Russian attacks resulted in a deficit of around 1.3 billion euros for the Ukrainian state.
Minister Taras Vysotsky warned that the reorganization of logistics could increase the price of food by up to 2.5%. According to the Ukrainian central bank, inflation was 8.1% in August year-on-year. “It hits the wallet hard!” says Anya Dmyterko, an affable 35-year-old grocer. “With a thousand hryvnias (around 19.50 euros), I could buy groceries, meat, sweets for the children,” she explains. “Today you can hardly buy anything.”
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As the sirens wail once again in the central market of Boryspil, she pushes her sausage-filled trolley without looking up. Despite the risk, the grocer is seeing an influx of new customers, attracted by departments less affected by shortages and rising prices than those of large supermarkets. Supermarkets remain mainly frequented by “the young generation, city dwellers, with comfortable incomes”, recalls Oleg Pendzyne. The majority of Ukrainian families buy “45% of their products in the markets” and “30% in local grocery stores” every month.
These businesses obtain their supplies directly from national producers, which allows, for the moment, to rule out any “risk of food shortage”, assures the economist. In the market, the sounds of anti-aircraft batteries resound. Not enough to cover the discussions on inflation and the arrival of winter which have animated it in recent days.
