The UN allowed a Russian ship to deliver cargo to the Houthis despite the fact that the grain was stolen from Ukraine

A Russian-owned bulk carrier that regularly made flights to occupied Crimea received UN permission to unload at the Houthi-controlled port of Salif.

The vessel “Zafar” (IMO: 9720263) turned off AIS in May of this year and loaded 35,700 tons of wheat in the temporarily occupied Sevastopol. This is confirmed by both Ukrainian investigators and foreign media such as Lloyd’s List and Bellingcat.

The ship then proceeded to Djibouti, where it received permission to call at the Houthi-controlled port of Salif. It is worth noting that the permit was issued by the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism — it is one of the UN bodies that inspects ships going to the ports of Yemen.

Since the ship did reach Salif port on June 30, it can be understood that the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism had no problems with the ship.

According to Lloyd’s List, the “Zafar” voyage is the first time a Russian ship has been allowed to transport grain directly from occupied Crimea to a Houthi-controlled port in Yemen.

“Security analysts called it a disturbing development that should raise alarm about the UN-led verification mechanism,” the newspaper noted.

Earlier, we also spoke in more detail about this case – for the first time, stolen Ukrainian grain was delivered to Yemen from Sevastopol.