Turkey has put a hand: how Russia sells grain stolen in Ukraine - investigation
One example was last summer, when a 138-meter Laodicea ship was rolled in Lebanon. Ukrainian diplomats said that grain was stolen on his board. The diplomats asked the Livan authorities to arrest the ship. The Kremlin considers these statements false, and the Prosecutor General Lebanon supported the pro -Russian opinion. As a result, he decided that 10 thousand tons of barley and wheat flour could be unloaded, said in the material.
The Laodicea ship belongs to Syria, it participated in a complex operation of the Russian Federation from smuggling. Journalists studied satellite images and marine transponder data to trace about 30 ships. The vessels have performed more than 50 flights on the transportation of grain with the territories of Ukraine temporarily occupied by Russia. Lawyers consider the export of the grain to the theft and the war crime.
The Russians managed to take the cargo to Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and other countries. The theft of grains are rich businessmen and state companies from Russia and Syria. Part of the office came under US and EU sanctions. Grain and flour on the Laodicea ship could be downloaded in Melitopol. On July 9, a video appeared on social networks, where the train pulled up to the Melitopol elevator. The green cars were visible on the Russian company "Agro-Fragat".
A week later, the occupiers of the occupiers Andrey Siguta held a press conference and said that the grain "would ensure the food security of" Russian -occupied regions of Ukraine. His "administration" had to estimate the crop and determine the volume for sale. During the pro -Russian official's speech, the armed soldier guarded the trucks from which the wheat was unloaded near the mill.
Workers loaded flour into white bags, similar to those who came to Lebanon aboard Laodicea in a few weeks, the authors said. Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov, in communication with AP, noted that the invaders had taken out a lot of grain by rail and trucks to the ports of the Russian Federation and annexed Crimea. The trucks were with the letters "Z" - symbols of war against Ukraine. Agro-Freasty wagons were seen in Feodosia-they were unloaded on a ship at the port with trucks.
Satellite images of July 11 recorded a Laodicea ship in Feodosia. The ship transponder was switched off and the freight compartments were opened and filled with flour from trucks. Two weeks after the Laodicea ship entered the Lebanon port of Tripoli, it was claimed that the grain was transported from the Russian port from the other side of the Black Sea. The AP agency received a copy of the goods declaration stating that the grain was sent from the Caucasus.
The declaration referred to sending 10 thousand tons of Russian barley and flour in bags. The sender of the cargo is Agro-Fragat, and the buyer is the wholesale company Loyal Agro with the headquarters in Turkey. Loyal Agro Muhammad Juma said that the company had accepted 5,000 tons of flour and sent the rest to the Syrian Tartus. "We had an agreement with Russia, flour came from Russia. If it was stolen, Livan's power would not allow it to be imported," he emphasized.
The Laodicea ship could not take the cargo in the Caucasus, as stated in the declaration. This ship needs more than 8 meters of depth so that you do not sit on a shallow. Ports in the Caucasus can accept ships that need no more than 5. 3 meters of depth. The port in Feodosia is twice as many Laodicea needs. Laodicea belongs to Syriamar Shipping Ltd. Since 2015, the carrier has been under US sanctions because of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Journalists found 10 flights from Ukraine to the ports of Turkey, Syria and Lebanon by Laodicea, Souria and Finikia. Another Russian company that participated in the theft of Ukrainian grain is the "United Shipyard" (OSC). The contractor builds ships and submarines for the naval forces of the Russian Federation. Crane Marine Contractor bought 3 cargo vessels a few weeks before his daughter, Vladimir Putin began an invasion of Ukraine.
For a firm that supplies heavy platforms for the oil and gas industry, it was a strange solution. Three vessels have performed at least 17 flights from Crimea to Turkey and Syria. In mid-June, the satellite images recorded a 170-meter cargo ship "Mikhail Nenashev" in the grain terminal of Avlit in Sevastopol. Already on June 25, the ship entered the Turkish port of Deriol, after 2 days the vessel "Mikhail Nenashev" was rolled up to the MMK Metalurji metallurgical company.
There, the cranes overloaded wheat from the ship into trucks that left in an unknown direction. MMK Metalurji is a Turkish subsidiary of the Russian Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant, which is controlled by a billionaire Viktor Rashnikov, close to Putin. As in the case of Laodicea, Mikhail Nenashev ship could not stand in the port of the Caucasus because of the required depth.
The CEO of Windward, which analyzes the AMI maritime data, said that smugglers often fake transport declarations to hide the true origin of the cargo. "Illegal falsification is a tactic that attackers use to conceal the origin of the goods they carry, whether for the purpose of evading sanctions, smuggling of illegal goods or other crimes," he explained. Harveast Ukrainian Agrarian Holding reported that Russia has stolen at least 200,000 tons of grain.
The executive director of the holding Dmitry Kushnir stated that his company had lost about $ 50 million. Workers in the occupied Mariupol saw grain exported to Russia, and its further buyers - countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. "To steal, they just take it to Rostov and Taganrog, small Russian ports, mix with Russian grain and say that all this is Russian grain," Kushnir explained.
Satellite images and transponder data indicate that large cargo ships near the Russian coast were approached by smaller vessels with Crimean and Russian ports, hiding the real origin of the cargo. Then large ships were taken to Egypt, Libya, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The Turkish company Yayla Agro, which is producing ready -to -use products, acknowledged that it bought 8. 8 thousand tons of corn, which was delivered by the Russian ship "Fedor" to the Turkish port of Bandirma on June 17.
The cargo cost $ 2. 7 million. The company denies that it bought the stolen grain from Ukraine, insisting that the documents indicated its shipment in the Russian port "Caucasus". The satellite images of June 12 shows how the Fedor ship was loaded in Sevastopol. Yayla Agro bought 7 thousand tons of corn brought by the Russian ship "St. Nicholas" on June 24. Satellite images indicate that 6 days before this vessel was loaded in Sevastopol, and the documents were prescribed "Caucasus".
AP concludes that the role of Turkey in the theft of Ukrainian grain is especially sensitive, as the NATO country has played an important role in negotiations between Kiev and Moscow on unblocking food exports from Ukraine. There are signs that the Turkish government received grain from Ukraine. AP and PBS found flights from the Crimea to Turkey, which were performed by Mikhail Nenashev, Laodicea and Souria vessels.
These ships were moored near the elevators, which is controlled by the Turkish grain council - a state organization that imports and export grain and other agricultural products. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Chavushaglu said in June that his country had not found signs of theft. "We receive such statements. This information is sometimes coming from the Ukrainian side. We treat it very seriously and carefully.
In our investigation into the origin of goods, ports and ships after Turkey's applications, we saw that Russia was specified in the country of origin , - explained Chavushoglu. AP writes that despite the records in the documents, the smuggling of Ukrainian grain continues. The Crane Marine Contractor Satroz Bit ship went to northern Black Sea last week with the declared destination of the Port "Caucasus". The ship has already disconnected the transponder.