Putin actively steals Ukrainian grain

In 2023 alone, Russia exported almost 212,000 tons of grain with an approximate value of 46 million dollars from the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region. Ukrainian grain is exported to Turkey, Libya and Israel by a state-owned company specially created by the Russians, and European companies are also involved in this.

This became known from the investigation of the independent anti-corruption center NGL.media. Its authors analyzed Russian export data. In particular, we are talking about customs declarations, where the exporter or declarant is the Russian State Grain Operator – the main exporter of grain from the occupied territories.

At the beginning of 2023, this enterprise fell under US sanctions, later sanctions were imposed by Ukraine and Great Britain. However, the State grain operator successfully circumvents these restrictions by using spacer companies to trade on international markets.

Trade in grain through companies-pads

Thus, in 2023, the State Grain Operator exported 212,000 tons of Ukrainian grain worth approximately $46 million. Of this volume of grain, the company exported 145,000 tons directly, and almost 67,000 tons through Russian packing companies, where the GZO is specified by the declarant.

These companies “Agrogroup”, “Samson”, “Tesori Della Terra”, “Global Trade” and “Zhenidi Group” are needed by Russia for camouflage. It is with them that international buyers enter into agreements on the purchase of grain, which gives them the opportunity to claim that they did not buy anything directly from the State grain operator. Also, using intermediaries, GZO additionally masks the Ukrainian origin of the grain.

Formally, Ukrainian grain is loaded onto ships on the internationally recognized territory of Russia – in the port of “Kavkaz” in the Kerch Strait (Krasnodar region of the Russian Federation). This makes it possible to indicate in the customs documents “the country of origin of the grain is Russia”, after which the grain is safely exported to foreign companies.

“Actually, the State grain operator can ship grain through captured Ukrainian ports in Berdyansk or Mariupol, which are much closer to occupied Melitopol, where this company is based, explains Kateryna Yaresko, a journalist of the SeaKrime project of the Peacemaker Center,” the article says.

Yaresko suggests that the Russians can take part of the grain from Melitopol by land to the port of Azov in the Rostov region of the Russian Federation. Already there, it can be transshipped onto Russian ships, which transport it to the port of “Kavkaz”.

Who buys Ukrainian grain from the Russian Federation?

The largest buyer of grain from Russian companies, where the State Grain Operator is a declarant, and often an exporter, is the Turkish company Trans World Agro Tarim Ihracat Ithalat Limited Sirketi. The Russians sold her almost 134,000 tons of grain worth 28.6 million US dollars.

Trans World Agro was established in December 2022 by Israeli citizen Leon Mays, and Ukrainian Leonid Pashkovsky became the director of this formally Turkish company. However, already in December 2023, another Ukrainian became the new owner and at the same time director – 63-year-old Dmytro Lyskanich, a sailor from Kherson.

Daliland Alliance Ltd, registered in the Marshall Islands, is in second place among buyers of Ukrainian grain, according to customs declarations. Out of six batches of grain for this company, in four the declarant and exporter indicated the State grain operator. In two other lots, the exporter is the Russian company Global Trade, but the declarant is Timokhin Vladislav Anatoliyovych. A person with the same surname is also indicated in most customs declarations, where the State grain operator appears.

The Swiss company Vivalon AG was in third place in terms of the volume of grain purchases – its involvement in the export of Ukrainian grain has already attracted the interest of the most influential Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung. In September-October 2023, Vivalon AG bought five batches of grain from the Russian exporter Samson. In these customs declarations, the State grain operator is indicated everywhere as the consignor and declarant of cargo. The total value of the cargo was 4.9 million dollars.

Another 4.6 thousand tons of corn should be exported to Turkey for Krugozor lines lojistik deniz hava kara tasimiciligi limited sirket. This is a Turkish company, the founder of which until September 2022 was a citizen of Azerbaijan, Elbrus Huseynov, who has been working with both Turkey and Russia for a long time. In the fall of 2023, the firm was transferred to the ownership of another citizen of Azerbaijan, Makhnur Huseynova.