The Dean of the BSU journalism department said that food rationing has been introduced in Ukraine. We interviewed Ukrainians on the ground

Alexey Belyaev, Dean of the BSU journalism department speculated on the economic situation in Ukraine on the air of Alpha Radio on November 26, 2024. 

"Ukraine has already transitioned to a wartime economy, completely... Food rationing is already being introduced there, and other wartime measures," Belyaev stated without disclosing the sources of such claims.

In October 2024, Russian Telegram channels reported that grains and flour had disappeared from the store shelves in Zhytomyr and backed it up with videos of empty supermarket shelves, purportedly filmed recently. 

As it turned out, the video had been shot two years prior, at the start of the war, when the hostilities disrupted the supply chains all over the country and came from a different location – Kamenskoye, not Zhytomyr. However, the logistical problems were limited to a small number of goods and were temporary. 

The WTF team has not been able to corroborate the story of food shortages and rationing introduced in Ukraine. We asked residents of the country whether they had problems buying food items and if they encountered empty shelves in stores. 

"I want to show that everything is fine with food in Kyiv. People go shopping, there are no restrictions. The shelves are full," - said the caption of a video sent to us from Kyiv, showing food on shelves in a local grocery store.

Other videos from stores in Vinnytsya and Lviv also show no signs of food shortages. None of the residents we surveyed confirmed that any restrictions had been placed on purchasing groceries.