Russia has already “earned” $530 million from the theft of Ukrainian grain

The terrorist country earned at least $530 million from the sale of grain exported from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

Russia was able to steal at least $530 million worth of grain from Ukraine by using a shell company and hiding the geolocation of its ships, according to joint investigation of the Associated Press and PBS.

Journalists made an investigation based on the analysis of satellite images, data from ship transponders, documents, posts on social networks and testimonies of farmers and representatives of transport companies.

In total, the investigators established the involvement of more than 30 vessels in the theft of Ukrainian grain. The ships made more than 50 trips to export grain from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and other countries.

One example is the ship Laodicea and its route. On July 9, the occupiers in Melitopol loaded grain into wagons, which were taken to the port of Feodosia in the Crimea annexed by russia. There, the grain was transhipped onto a ship, which then set off for Libya and Syria with AIS turned off.

According to the documents, the ship allegedly left the russian port of Kavkaz. However, the port is too shallow for such a vessel, unlike Feodosia, where the bulker was spotted using satellite images.

The ship Laodicea is one of three owned by the Syrian state company Syriamar Shipping (under US sanctions since 2015). The company’s ships made at least 10 flights from the occupied coast of Ukraine to Libya, Turkey and Syria.

The russian United Shipbuilding Corporation, which supplies the russian Navy with ships and submarines, is also involved in the theft of Ukrainian grain. Through its subsidiary Crane Marine Contractor, USK acquired three vessels that made no less than 17 voyages from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Turkey and Syria.

In some cases, satellite images captured ship-to-ship (STS) transshipment of grain right at sea. This indicates the intention to hide the origin of the cargo.

According to AP and PBS investigations, one of the buyers of stolen Ukrainian grain could be Turkey. The ships Laodicea and “Mikhail Nenashev” sometimes arrived at ports with elevators owned by the Turkish Grain Board. It should be noted that Turkey is one of the parties to the Istanbul Agreements, and purchases Ukrainian grain also legally.

Back in June, the Turkish authorities claimed that they were taking reports of stolen grain deliveries seriously, but they allegedly found no confirmation of this. Meanwhile, last week AP recorded the ship “Matros Koshka”, which according to the documents was supposed to be loaded in the port of Kavkaz, but in fact it was done in Sevastopol.