Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had wide-ranging economic, political, and social consequences around the world, including in Iraqi Kurdistan. Food and fuel prices have increased dramatically since the conflict began in February, and supplies of medicine imported from Ukraine have threatened to run short. Kurdish students studying in Ukraine have also had to return home. Additionally, with Europe facing natural gas shortages, plans to export the vital fuel from the Kurdistan region have exacerbated political tensions within Iraq. Always vulnerable to the vagaries of geopolitics, Iraqi Kurdistan is likely to feel the reverberations of the Russia-Ukraine war for the foreseeable future.

Impact on local food prices

Like many places around the world and the region in particular, prices of basic food staples like wheat flour, cooking oil, rice, and beans increased dramatically in Iraqi Kurdistan in the weeks after the Russian invasion...