Russia plunders 15 million tons of Ukrainian grain since 2022

Reuters reported the information.

Ukraine believes that all the grain produced in the four regions and Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, has been stolen by Moscow, and plans to ask its Western allies to impose sanctions against its importers.

Ukrainian intelligence claims that Ukrainian wheat is mixed with Russian wheat in Black Sea ports and then exported.

"Taking this season into account, we estimate that Russia has stolen 15 million tons of Ukrainian grain since the start of the full-scale war," Ukraine's Deputy Economy Minister Taras Vysotskiy told Reuters.

Ukraine has already called on the European Union to impose sanctions against Bangladesh for purchasing wheat that, according to Ukraine, comes from the occupied regions, but the EU has not done so.

The European Commission did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

At the same time, traders told journalists that it is impossible to trace the origin of wheat after it has been mixed.

Russian officials have not commented on the legal status of grain harvested in the occupied territories. Russia’s official statistics agency, as well as leading consulting companies, do not include the harvests from the occupied regions in their reports, although the Ministry of Agriculture does, which creates some discrepancies regarding their status, the agency notes.

• In November 2023, it was reported that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Russians had stolen more than 15 million tons of grain, two-thirds of which was wheat, and one-third corn and sunflower. The revenue from selling such an amount of grain could exceed $7 billion.