Russia earned up to $6 billion from stolen Ukrainian grain

Russia earned at least $6 billion from Ukrainian grain stolen in the temporarily occupied territories.

Russia and its proxies have made at least six billion dollars in stolen grain, the Wall Street Journal reports.

According to Deputy Minister of Agriculture Markiyan Dmytrasevich, at least 4 million tons of grain from the occupied territories of Ukraine have been sold on international markets since 2022.

The US government said that the Russian state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation owns the three ships exporting the stolen grain. It also built warships that Russia used in the war against Ukraine.

With the help of stolen grain, Russia can finance the war, partially compensating for losses due to the implementation of Western sanctions. For example, a Russian company that sells grain from the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region donated $111,000 to the occupying battalion.

Grain is sent from the occupied Crimea, mostly, to Yemen and Iran. The prosecutor’s office in Kharkiv is also investigating a trader who is suspected of stealing and reselling grain from a company from the UAE. The Helios Plus company took out all 700 tons of grain that remained at the bread factory in Kupyansk when it was occupied by Russia in August 2022.

Earlier, USM reported that a Russian bulk carrier-thief went with a cargo of grain from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to the Egyptian port of Alexandria.