In mid-October 2025, reports appeared in Russian media that Ukrainians were allegedly illegally resell army individual food kits sent to the Ukrainian army from Canada. We have verified the accuracy of this information.
“Ukrainians are selling dry rations from military aid from Canada on an advertisement website, the packages of which are marked “not for sale,” the Russian state news agency reported on October 12.RIA Novosti" With reference to him, the news soon appeared in “Gazeta.ru", "Moskovsky Komsomolets", on News.ru and in other publications. The information was also spread on Telegram: for example, in the channel “RIA Novosti"at the time of writing this analysis, the corresponding post received 451,000 views, and on the showman’s channel Andrey Bocharov - 104,000.
Although it was RIA Novosti’s report about the sale of Canadian dry rations in Ukraine that went viral, in October the news agency also published similar news about Estonian, Latvian, Polish And Norwegian individual diets (IRP), which can be found for sale on Ukrainian ad sites or local specialized resources. In each publication, the publication either directly accused Ukrainians of illegally reselling food received as part of assistance programs, or hinted at this: “There is a clarification on the product packaging - it is illegal to sell or buy such dry rations.”
The RIA Novosti post on Telegram contains screenshots of several advertisements for the sale of Canadian army rations on the Ukrainian advertisement site OLX. "Verified" found them (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). In addition, the site also has other advertisements about the sale of IRP from different countries, you can also find them on local specialized sites.
However, such resources is available in the Russian segment of the Internet. Also, army rations from Canada and other countries are sold at Russian marketplaces.
The dry rations from advertisements on Ukrainian and Russian websites actually say “Not for sale” - this is standard for army IRPs. They are considered government property respective countries and are not intended to be placed on the open market.
Nevertheless, army rations are in great demand among hikers and so-called survivalists - people who want to be prepared for all sorts of disasters. Therefore, there is a gray market for such IRPs. You can purchase them wholesale and retail with international delivery through eBay, Reddit and on specialized forums. Moreover, reviews of IRP from armies of different countries have been available for many years are recruiting millions of views on YouTube. Similar videos are published by Russian, Ukrainian, American and other bloggers.
One of the sellers from the United States told Verified on condition of anonymity that he purchases dry rations through unauthorized intermediaries after the official write-off of the IRP due to damage to the packaging or expiration date. Buyers, according to him, are not worried that they are purchasing an expired product, since the real shelf life of dry food is much longer than indicated on the packaging (some believe that it is almost unlimited). Our interlocutor said that although his activity is in the gray zone, he considers it quite ethical, given that otherwise written off dry rations are simply thrown away. The seller, based in Latvia, responded to a Verified query: “Latvia has the largest contingent of Canadian soldiers outside of Canada, so you can guess where we get the IRP from.”
We also contacted Russian and Ukrainian sellers of foreign army rations. Of those who advertised the sale of Canadian IRPs on OLX, one person replied. He said that a friend gave him three of these IRPs, he ate one, and decided to sell the remaining two. As for Russian sellers, one of them, who offered Canadian dry rations for Avito, after our request, he removed the ad from sale, the seller Ozon did not respond to the message (although the product itself is still available for purchase), and a site representative suhpaytorg.ru reported: “NATO rations are not yet available and, most likely, will not be.”
Canadian IRPs, the Verified analysis shows, were sold in Ukraine long before the start of the full-scale Russian invasion - for example, in 2016 And 2018 years. At the same time, Cheryl Forrest, a public relations specialist with the Canadian Department of National Defense, confirmed to “Verified” that the country did not supply its army rations to Ukraine until 2022.
Thus, the advertisements, screenshots of which were published by RIA Novosti, are genuine. However, you can buy Canadian (and many other) army dry rations all over the world, including in Russia, which has not received such assistance from NATO countries. Although from a legal point of view, trading in such PRIs is at least in a gray area, such advertisements have been appearing on the Internet for many years.
Cover photo: OLX screenshot
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