WFP member company buys stolen Ukrainian grain from Russian drone manufacturer

A company that supplies products for UN programs receives stolen Ukrainian grain from a Russian company that also produces drones.

This is stated in the investigation of “Slidstvo.Info”.

Thus, in 2023-2024, the Russian company “Nika” sent to Turkey more than 54 thousand tons of wheat from occupied Mariupol. Part of this agricultural product ended up with Erisler, a Turkish company that is a member of the United Nations World Food Program. The owners of the Russian sending company also have another business: they produce drones that are used in the war against Ukraine.

The owner of the company “Nika” is Russian businessman Roman Gurov. At the same time, he is the CEO of the sanctioned company “Roboavia”, which manufactures reconnaissance drones “Sarych” and strike drones “Surprise” for the Russian army.

In 2023, Nika exported $3.7 million worth of wheat to Turkey and Egypt. In 2024, these volumes increased almost fourfold to $12.9 million (59.5 thousand tons). The declarations of conformity of products from July 2022 to 2026 indicate that the company’s production sites are located in occupied Mariupol.

The recipient of the grain, according to customs declarations, is Global Commodities and Logistics Limited. The end consumer of part of the cargo is Turkish Erisler. According to journalists, the laboratory examination of one of the batches of wheat that the company received in April 2024 was carried out by the Ukrainian representative office of the international company Cotecna in Odessa.

Cotecna stated that they “categorically deny any accusations regarding the provision of services related to agricultural goods exported from non-government-controlled territories of Ukraine, including Mariupol.”

The document for one of the deliveries states that the Russian vessel Alfa M (under Ukrainian sanctions since November 2023) sent 7.85 thousand tons of wheat to the Russian port of Temryuk in the Krasnodar Territory, on the coast of the Sea of ​​Azov. From there, according to data from the Russian customs service, the goods went to Turkey. The cargo declaration dated April 6, 2024 indicates that the cargo was sent from Mariupol, which was called not a Ukrainian, but a Russian city. According to the document, the Russian Nika sent this batch of grain on behalf of Global Commodities to the Turkish company Erisler Gida Sanayi Ve Ticaret A.S..

“The batch of wheat exported by the Alfa M vessel from occupied Mariupol actually has the status of contraband. After loading in Mariupol, the ship enters the Russian port of Temryuk, where it draws up Russian documents for a batch of stolen grain, which hide its true origin. Such systematic disinformation activity, which is taking place in the Russian Federation at the state level, undermines the foundations of the economic security of participants in international trade,” commented Kateryna Yaresko, a journalist with the Ukrainian investigative project SeaKrime of the Myrotvorets Center.

By the way, the “Alfa M” ship has changed its name to Irkutsk. It is currently heading to Egypt with a cargo of wheat from occupied Mariupol.