'Turkey among countries where grain Russia stole from Ukraine is sold'

Satellite view of the Russian-flagged Matros Pozynich loading wheat from the Crimea/Maxar Technologies

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Ukraine's Ambassador to Turkey Vasil Bodnar said Friday (Jun3) that Turkey is among the destinations where the grain which Russia "stole" from his country is sold.

Speaking to the press, Bodnar also said that Ukraine asked for support from Turkey to identify and capture the people who are responsible for the sales and shipments of the grain.

"Those involved in Russia's shipments of stolen grain to other countries over territorial waters of Turkey are being investigated by Interpol," he added.

Bodnar repeated the allegations from the official account of the Embassy of Ukraine in Turkey with the hashtag #Türkiye.

5️⃣ “Yaklaşık 12 milyon #Ukrayna vatandaşı yaşadığı yeri değiştirmek zorunda kaldı. 12 milyondan 6 milyonu da yurt dışına çıktı.”

— Ukraine in Türkiye (@UKRinTR) June 3, 2022

Claims of stolen grain

Ukraine's the first Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotskyi claimed that Russia stole 500,000 tons of grain from territories since Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"We see that about half a million tonnes of grain have been stolen. There is evidence from all the temporarily occupied regions – Kherson, Zaporizhia, Luhansk, Donetsk, and Kharkiv. Cargo is taken either to Russia, primarily from Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions, or through temporarily occupied Crimea – from Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions,"  Vysotskyi had stated.

Ukraine also thanked Egypt on May 19 for turning away a Russian ship loaded with grain that is claimed to be stolen from Ukraine.

The Ukraine embassy in Beirut told Reuters on June 2 that Russia had sent Syria some 100,000 tonnes of stolen wheat, describing the shipments as "criminal activity".

The embassy said the shipments were made by a dry cargo ship of Russia, Matros Puzynich passing through Turkey's territorial waters, and arrived at Syria's main seaport Latakia in late May.

Russia denies allegations

Open-source research by Reuters showed that on May 19, the Matros Pozynich loaded wheat left the port of Sevastopol in Crimea and docked in the Syrian port of Latakia on May 29.

"Whether the wheat is stolen or not has not been verified yet", Reuters reported.

No statement came from Turkey or Syria regarding the allegations, yet. (AEK/TB/VK)