Russian troops are sending a new batch of stolen grain from the Mariupol port

Another ship with 2,000 tons of wheat stolen in Ukraine is being prepared for departure in the Russian-occupied seaport of Mariupol. Petro Andryushchenko, adviser to the chairman of Mariupol, announced this.

The Russians continue to steal our grain under noise. While the grain agreement is being blocked by Russia, they are loading another two thousand tons on the Mezhdurechensk ship in Mariupol. The same, which for some reason is not officially in Mariupol. By the way, maybe it’s time to announce sanctions and bring the officials – the shipowner to justice?” Andryushchenko wrote.

Russian mass media also report on the export of grain from the occupied territories through the Mariupol port. According to their data, this is already the fourth voyage since the beginning of the year by a vessel under the management of the federal autonomous institution “RosCapStroy”, which will transport stolen Ukrainian wheat to Rostov-on-Don.

At the moment, loading is carried out in a direct way – the car approaches, unloads, and then is loaded on board by two referees. This allows loading more than 1,000 tons per day,” they write.

According to the Russian “administration” of Mariupol, since the beginning of 2023, the Mariupol port has handled about 20,000 tons of various types of cargo, of which about 8,000 tons are grain.

Russia plans to turn Mariupol into a large logistics hub for the export of grain from the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions. To do this, they are demolishing the railway station and rebuilding the seaport.

In April, the Russians illegally included the ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk in the register of sea ports of Russia. The process of including the navigable section of the waterways of the Kherson region into the list of inland waterways of Russia has also been launched.

In January 2023, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced that the appointed by the Russian invaders “acting director” of the Mariupol Seaport to Hryhoriy Sobolevsky on suspicion of organizing a criminal mechanism for the export of Ukrainian agricultural grain and metallurgical products by sea.

In August and October 2022, the SBU announced suspicions against the Russian-appointed “directors” of the Berdyansk and Kherson seaports, Volodymyr Stelmachenko and Andrii Kharitonov.

In early May, the Ministry of Infrastructure issued an order to close the sea ports of Berdyansk, Mariupol, Skadovsk, and Kherson, which are located in the Russian-occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Kherson regions, until control over them is restored.