Kyiv, April 30 – Russian forces have stolen “several hundred thousand tons” of grain in areas of Ukraine occupied by them, Ukraine’s Deputy Agriculture Minister said on Saturday.
Speaking to Ukraine’s state television, Taras Vysotskiy expressed concern that most of what he said was 1.5 million tons of grain stored in occupied territories could also be stolen by Russian forces.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday accused Russia of stealing grain in areas it occupies, an act that raises the threat to global food security. Continue reading
Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi said grain theft had increased in the past two weeks.
“I personally hear that from many silo owners in the occupied territories. This is open robbery. And this is happening everywhere in the occupied territories,” the ministry quoted Solskyi as saying.
He said such a situation could cause food problems in areas that are currently uncontrolled.
“There will soon be a wheat harvest in the South. But farmers in this situation might say, ‘Here are the keys to the tractor – go and pick it up yourself if you want,'” Solskyi said.
The Kremlin denied Ukraine’s allegations and said it did not know where the information came from.
The Ministry of Agriculture said on Friday that six regions in Ukraine completed their spring grain sowing despite the Russian invasion.
Ukraine is divided into 24 regions, but no grain sowing is planned in Luhansk in the east because of the fierce fighting there.
The ministry gave no grain harvest forecast for 2022, while analysts see production of 41.4 million tons this year, compared to 86 million tons in 2021.
Consulting firm APK-Inform said grain exports could total 33.2 million tonnes in 2022/23, versus 45.5 million expected for the 2021/22 season, which ends in June.
Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Edited by William Mallard and Hugh Lawson