Large quantities of grain are exported from the occupied Ukrainian districts of Cherson to Crimea, which was annexed by Russia. Apparently the Russians are afraid of attacks, because the transporters are accompanied by the Russian military.
According to the UN, ten percent of the world’s grain comes from Ukraine. The southern Ukrainian districts of Cherson and Zaporizhia, which are now largely occupied by the Russian army, play a not insignificant role. For some time now, Ukrainian government officials have been talking about grain being exported from there via the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. According to Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Agriculture Taras Vysotskyi, 400,000 tons of grain had been exported from the occupied territories by the beginning of May.
The Russian occupation administrations of the Kherson and Zaporizhia districts make no secret of this theft. In early June, for example, the head of the so-called military-civilian administration of Zaporizhia openly admitted that carts with grain were going to Crimea from the occupied city of Melitopol. The deputy head of one such administration in Kherson said in mid-June that the queues at the “border” between Kherson and Crimea are a good sign because so much grain is being brought from the Kherson region to the peninsula. The pro-Russian channels on Telegram are even more open about such cases.
Now the BBC’s Russian-language program found out exactly how the Ukrainian grain is transported by the Russians. According to this, grain from the Kherson and Zaporizhia districts is basically exported in two ways, both of which lead through the Crimea. In some cases this is done by train, in other cases special trucks are used. The occupation authorities also want to use the port of Berdyansk in the Zaporizhia district on the Sea of ??Azov for this purpose. So far, however, the port is not free of mines.
According to BBC journalists Andrei Sakharov and Maria Korenyuk, part of the grain trucks are registered in Ukraine. Apparently, the Russians do not have enough suitable trucks, because since June there have been increasing numbers of ads in the relevant Telegram chats looking for vans. Forwarders are promised military escort on Ukrainian territory. The journalists responded to such advertisements: military escort with an armored car at the beginning and at the end of the column is specifically offered. A soldier sits in both cars – and the grain is brought to Dschankoj in the north of Crimea.
While it is currently impossible to export grain to Kyiv-controlled territory, it is unclear whether the occupiers are also transporting grain that belongs directly to the Ukrainian state – such as grain from state-owned companies or strategic stockpiles. There is conflicting information about this. It is clear that there are farmers who, more or less voluntarily, give up their own grain at a price that is two and a half to three times below the market price, so that it is not completely lost.
Entrepreneur Mykhailo Kumok, who lived under occupation in Melitopol for more than a month but then fled and knows many peasants, says that they – especially those who represent a pro-Ukrainian position – were kidnapped and locked in a cellar. It seems as if the Russians initially put pressure on them, but over time they understood that they could get the grain more easily if they paid at least a little for it.
Kumok left grain trucks and granaries in the occupied area where other farmers could store their crops. For a while, he was able to observe what was happening there through surveillance cameras. So five people came there, apparently two civilians and three soldiers, who examined everything. Later, other military officers looked around in the store in question – and in the night people in civilian clothes finally came, smashed his cameras and took away at least 600 tons of sunflower seeds.
The stolen crops do not remain in Crimea, because according to the Russian Prime Minister of the occupied peninsula, Sergei Aksjonov, Crimea is self-sufficient to be sold from there. In May, Ukrainian authorities reported that a Russian bulk carrier was bound for Egypt from the port of Sevastopol with grain. But there the acceptance of the charge was apparently refused. Instead, the freighter went to Syria and then returned to the Black Sea.
So the Russian grain is probably brought either to Russia or to Syria, where it is probably not necessary to document the origin of the goods. The BBC’s sources confirm that the larger the quantity, the more difficult it is to “legalize” grain. However, Russia already has experience with the export of grain from the so-called People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. There, too, Moscow used a number of tricks to be able to sell it as Russian – even if the quantities involved were very small at the time and the cover-up was much easier.
