The Russia-Ukraine Conflict - Implications for Farms and Agricultural Markets Introduction to the Special Issue

At the beginning of 2022 it was hard to imagine that the world economy, which was about to recover from ramifications of the Covid pandemic, would be struck immediately by a subsequent crisis nor was it in the scope of imagination that a war in Western Eurasia will be the source of the crisis. Russia’s military inva-sion into Ukraine on February 24 caused incredible human suffering to the Ukrainian population, but also triggered shockwaves to global agri-food and energy markets. Many politicians consider Russia’s war against Ukraine to be a turning point in the interna-tional relations between Western democratic countries on the one hand and Russia and his satellite states on the other hand that calls for a reorganization of EU’s and world’s security architecture as well as interna-tional trade relations (e.g. BORNIO, 2022). Actually, the vision of “change through trade” propagated by German politicians turned out to be an illusion. In response to Russia’s aggression, the EU and the US imposed a series of political and economic sanctions, which, in turn, have been riposted by shortages of energy supply to EU countries. These measures have drastic economic consequences, not only for Russia, but also for the EU. Driven by high energy prices inflation rates in Germany reached with more than seven percent the highest level since four decades and in case of a complete stop of gas and crude oil deliv-ery from Russia, leading economic research institutes predict a recession for Germany’s economy in 2023 (GORNIG et al., 2022) © 2022, German Journal of Agricultural Economics.All Rights Reserved.