Russia illegally exports 2 million tons of Ukrainian grain through Crimea ports in 2023

Kateryna Yaresko, a journalist of the SeaKrime investigative project of the Myrotvorets Center, told this in a commentary to Suspilne.Crimea.

"There are many methods for calculating grain volumes, including the NASA program that tracks the food situation worldwide. It provides approximate estimates every year. The grain harvest is around 6 million tons, for example, in the occupied territories. They provide such assessments. I think these estimates correspond to reality. It is exported in approximately such volumes," stated Yaresko.

According to her, in 2023, experts recorded more than 2 million tons of grain exported through the closed Crimean ports.

Yaresko noted that responsibility for the theft of Ukrainian grain also lies with the buyers. Attempts to purchase stolen Ukrainian grain have been documented in Egypt, Iran, and Turkey.

The journalist emphasized that at the state level, only Syria purchases the grain illegally exported from Ukraine. In all other cases, private entrepreneurs are involved.

"Some buyers turn a blind eye, even when we write about it and inform them, while others react. We have examples where a ship was not accepted in Israel. It was carrying grain from the occupied Crimea, specifically from Melitopol, to the address of a transnational company whose office is in the USA. It is obvious that the company did not know that the grain would be stolen from the occupied part of Ukraine. But after we wrote about it and informed the company, the ship was rejected, and it was not unloaded in Israel," said Kateryna Yaresko.

• Back in August 2023, it was reported that the grain harvest gathered in the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions was being actively transported by Russians through ports in Crimea.