🚛 Ukraine Accuses russia of Systematically Stealing Crops from Temporarily Occupied Territories. According to Deputy Minister of Economy Taras Vysotskyi, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, russia has removed at least 15 million tons of Ukrainian grain.
Source: Censor.NET
📍 This concerns harvests from occupied areas of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions, as well as temporarily occupied Crimea.
⚖️ Vysotskyi noted that Kyiv will initiate sanctions against importers of such agricultural products to make it harder for russia to access international markets.
🚢 According to Ukrainian intelligence, the stolen grain is exported through russian Black Sea ports, where it is mixed with russian grain — making it nearly impossible to trace its origin. International traders confirmed this issue in comments to Reuters.
📊 russia itself does not officially recognize the legal status of the stolen grain — these volumes are not included in Rosstat or consultancy firm reports. However, russia’s Ministry of Agriculture admits that about 3% of the harvest is gathered from the “new territories.”
🌱 For example, in Luhansk region alone, up to 1 million tons of grain are expected to be harvested this year, part of which is also intended for export — despite being grown on Ukrainian land.