Stolen Ukrainian barley was going to Iran as payment for Shahed drones, — SBU

The shadowy ship Xin Yu unloaded in Iran’s Bandar-Imam-Khomeini – according to the investigation, this could have been part of Russia’s payments for the Shahed drones.

The SBU is investigating a scheme to supply Ukrainian grain to Iran to circumvent the ban on trade with Iranian residents. This is reported by the Ukrainian Truth with reference to two rulings of the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv.

According to the investigation, Russian citizen Vazha Jashy, through controlled companies, arranged the supply of Ukrainian grain to Iran, involving officials of Ledesma Agro LLC in the scheme. The shipments lasted from September 2025 to March 2026. To hide the route, the shipping documents indicated a Turkish port, while in fact the cargo was going to Iran.

As an example, the ruling cites the bulk carrier Xin Yu under the flag of the People’s Republic of China (IMO 9244362), which was supposed to deliver 9,980 tons of Ukrainian barley to Turkey. However, according to the logbook, the ship bypassed Turkish ports and on November 13, 2025 anchored in a roadstead off the Iranian coast, where it remained until January 3, 2026. Later, it docked at berth No. 18 of the port of Bandar-Imam-Khomeini for unloading – the coordinates correspond to the Iranian port.

As part of the investigation, in early June, the court authorized searches of two beneficiaries of Ledesma Agro. The actions of the defendants are qualified, in particular, under articles on aiding an aggressor state and aiding in waging an aggressive war.

Recall that recently, the bulk carrier Panormitis with stolen Ukrainian grain, which the ports of Israel and Turkey refused to accept, was forced to return to Russia.

Also, the day before, USM wrote that the US wants Iran to buy American grain with unfrozen funds.