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Ukraine asks Turkey to probe three more Russian ships for stolen grain – media


The Russian ship Matros Koshka, on which the Russian Federation could illegally export stolen Ukrainian grain, in the Bosphorus, May 27, 2022

The Russian ship Matros Koshka, on which the Russian Federation could illegally export stolen Ukrainian grain, in the Bosphorus, May 27, 2022

Read also: Russia ‘exports’ 7,000 tons of Ukrainian grain via Berdyansk, Russian media reports

According to the agency, in a June 13 letter that hasn’t previously been reported, the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office asked Turkey’s justice ministry to investigate three ships it suspects have been involved in transporting grain allegedly stolen from recently occupied Ukrainian territories, such as Kherson.

Read also: Russians shell Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, destroy grain warehouse – regional authorities

All three large dry bulk carriers – the Mikhail Nenashev, Matros Pozynich and Matros Koshka – are owned by a subsidiary of a Western-sanctioned Russian state-owned company called United Shipbuilding Corporation, according to Equasis, a shipping database.

Read also: Turkish ports allow docking of Russian ships with stolen Ukrainian grain – Skhemy

The letter, which Reuters reviewed, said the ships traveled from Crimea’s main grain terminal in Sevastopol in April and May. The Ukrainian government requested that Ankara provide documentation about their cargo and arrival at Turkish ports.

Turkish authorities on July 3 detained the Zhibek Zholy, a cargo ship sailing under the Russian flag, which was carrying Ukrainian grain from occupied Berdyansk in Zaporizhzhya Oblast.

Taras Vysotsky, Ukraine’s first deputy minister of agrarian policy, on June 26 shared his estimates of Russian thefts of Ukrainian grain: since the beginning of the war, Russia has expropriated as much as 400,000 tonnes of grain from the Ukrainian fields.



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