Russia is trying to support its almost dead economy at the expense of Ukraine and is stealing Ukrainian grain. With the increase of Western sanctions against the Kremlin, the Russian economy began to rapidly collapse. To improve the situation, Putin decided to resort to one of his favorite tactics of the Russians – looting. One of his goals was Ukrainian grain.
Since the beginning of the war, the Russians have stolen and exported hundreds of thousands of tons of grain from the Kherson, Zaporozhye, Luhansk and Donetsk regions for more than half a billion dollars. From the illegal sales of Ukrainian grain, the Kremlin sends money not even for its own people, but for the war with Ukraine.
At present, the second phase of the export of grain from Crimea for sale has begun. And one question remains: why have the world leaders still not blocked the entire transport system of Russia's trade routes?
New criminal schemes of the Kremlin
It seems that Russia is again looking for loopholes and opportunities to implement its schemes for the sale of Ukrainian stolen grain. According to a Crimean source who did not wish to disclose his identity, Russia has started exporting grain from the territory of Crimea again.
In the Lugansk region, the Russians are emptying elevators and using trucks delivering grain to the ports of Sevastopol, Feodosia and Kerch. From there, grain is loaded onto ships.
When entering the Crimean ports, bulk carriers turn off their radars, so they cannot be tracked by ship monitoring systems such as Marine Traffic or Equasis.
The source also said that a vessel called “POMPANO” made the transition from September 30 to October 4 from the Kerch Commercial Seaport to the port of Eren in Turkey.
Via the vessel monitoring site, you can track the history of this vessel.
The map shows the current location of POMPANO, the vessel is in one of the Turkish ports of Eren .
Routes for export of Ukrainian grain by Russia
Next, you can see the chronology of visits by this vessel to seaports.
On September 26, the vessel entered the port (RUZZZ ), which is under the control of Russia, but they either hid or deleted information about this port. The ship stayed there for a day and a half, which is enough to load about 100-120 thousand tons of grain onto a bulk carrier.
After that, the vessel arrived at the port of Taman, which is one of the most promising dynamically developing Russian grain terminals in the Black Sea and covers a wide range of services related to the transshipment of grain cargo.
In the opinion experts, the bulk carrier could load part of the stolen grain in one of the ports in the Crimea and make additional cargo in Taman.
Pay attention!POMPANO is a bulk carrier, a specialized vessel for the transport of bulk cargo such as grain, coal, ore, cement. That is, Russia can freely export not only grain, but also natural resources from the occupied territories of Donetsk and Lugansk regions. h2>
Many words seem to be reliable, but this is far from being the case. The sanctions imposed against Russia should not only limit political and economic activity, but also provide for the closure of airspace and seaports.
Ports to which Russian ships are still freely allowed. If we look at the Marine Traffic monitoring data, we will see that a large number of cargo ships follow from the Sea of Azov to Turkey.
There have already been cases when Russia exported grain from occupied regions of Ukraine to Turkey. For example, the case when in June 2022 the cargo ship “Mikhail Nenashev” delivered 27 thousand tons of grain to the city of Eskenderun (Turkey).
While Europe is trying to help Ukraine with weapons and political support, there are countries and companies that are playing a double game and looking for benefits only for themselves, not thinking about the consequences in the future.
Food as a weapon in war
Until February 24, 2022, Ukraine provided food for more than 400 million people around the world and was one of the largest exporters of wheat.
The selection of grain is associated with the policy of confiscation of crops in the villages in the 30s of the XX century, when between 4 and 10 million people died in Ukraine as a result of the actions of the Soviet government that provoked the Holodomor.
Russian propaganda operates according to its typical method – first they create a problem, and then they try to blame others for it. Thus, Russia blames sanctions and the European Union for everything, while itself is looking for ways to influence.
The methods that Russia uses today in Ukraine are similar to those used by the KGB in the 1930s: the deliberate destruction of food and agricultural infrastructure, especially small farms, and the theft of Ukrainian grain.
In addition to its energy resources, Russia is using food as a weapon in this war. Blockade of grain supplies and misappropriation in order to create world hunger to put pressure on the world, especially on the EU and Ukraine.
Ukraine calls on the international community to condemn Russia's actions to get out of Ukrainian territory and increase economic sanctions to stop the armed aggression against Ukraine and prevent further humanitarian catastrophe and increased hunger in the world.
