All three ships, as reported by Reuters, had stopped at ports in Turkey and Syria shortly after setting sail from Sevastopol, Crimea.
THE Ukraine asked for her assistance Turkey in research about three Russian-flagged ships, which they are suspected of carrying stolen Ukrainian grainaccording to official documents cited by the Reuters.
In one of the letters dated June 13, Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office is asking Turkey’s justice ministry to investigate the three ships it names and are believed to be carrying grain stolen from Ukrainian territories that have fallen into Russian hands, such as Kherson.
According to the letter, the ships traveled from Sevastopol, Crimea in April and May. The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office is asking Ankara about the documents concerning the contents of the ships’ cargoes and their arrival at Turkish ports.
These are three large cargo ships: The Mikhail Nenashevthe Matros Pozynich and Matros Koshka. They belong to a subsidiary of a Russian state-owned company called United Shipbuilding Corporation, according to shipping database Equasis.
The letter states that at least two of the ships they disabled their tracking systems before entering the port of Sebastopol.
One of the ships, the 169-meter Mikhail Nenashev, was at the Sevastopol port terminal between June 14 and 16, according to satellite photos from Planet Labs PBC, showing the ship tied up next to a silo with cranes above it.
The Kremlinbut also the Russian company United Shipbuilding Corporationdid not respond to Reuters’ request for comment on the case.
THE deputy head of the Russian administration in Kherson, Kirill Stremousov; he said that the region’s grain is headed to Crimea under the responsibility of local farmers. He also said that he has no knowledge of any of their missions to Turkey and the Middle East.
Kyiv has publicly accused Moscow of stealing Ukrainian grain since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, which the Kremlin denies.
The war in Ukraine has caused global concern on food sufficiency and has driven food prices to record levels. Ukraine is one of the world’s largest grain exporters, yet all its ports are landlocked in the south.
Last Friday, Reuters published another letter dated June 30, by which Kyiv asks Ankara to impound another Russian ship that the Ukrainian authorities say is carrying wheat from the port of Berdyansk. On Monday, a senior Turkish official said Turkey had stopped a cargo ship and was investigating the Ukrainian claims.
It is recalled that Turkey, a NATO member country with good relations with both Ukraine and Russia, condemns the invasion but rejects Western sanctions on Russia.
The Turkish Ministry of Justice declined to comment on the two letters and referred to recent statements by TForeign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu how Kiev’s claims of stolen grain reaching Turkey were investigated and no problem was found.
“We have seen that the ships’ port of departure and the origin of the goods are Russia according to the documents,” Cavusoglu said on June 23 without specifying which ships he was referring to. “We are against the removal of grain or other goods from Russia … and will not allow such goods to come to us,” he added himself. It is worth noting that he did not respond last week to a query about the ferry from Berdyansk.
THE Vasyl Bodnar official of the Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture, told Reuters that Kyiv estimates that approx 400,000 tons of stolen grain have already been exported from the country.
According to Ukrainian Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon at least seven companies that have warehouses in the areas occupied by the Russians are reporting grain thefts.
Ukraine claims that Russia sends Ukrainian grain to its ally Syria since the start of the invasion in February. According to the Ukrainian embassy in Beirut, at least 150,000 tons of grain have been sent to Syria during this time, mainly by Russian ships.
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