Moscow, May 30, (dpa/GNA) - Russia, which has been blocking agricultural exports from Ukrainian ports for several weeks, has started importing grain from the occupied Black Sea region of Kherson.
“The export of last year’s harvest to Russia has begun,” the deputy head of Kherson’s pro-Russian military administration, Kirill Stremoussov, told Russian state news agency TASS on Monday.
According to Stremoussov, the aim is to create space in the stores for the new harvest. For this reason, he said, part of the grain stocks had been sold to Russia. He did not give any details about the conditions under which the farmers had given their harvest to the occupiers.
On Monday, Kiev again accused Moscow of stealing grain stocks from the occupied territories. Almost 500,000 tonnes of grain have been illegally exported by Russian troops from Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Luhansk and Donetsk, Ukraine’s deputy agriculture minister, Taras Vysotskyi, said. Large quantities were reportedly shipped from the port of Mariupol, which was recently captured by Russian troops.
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest grain exporters. Global food prices have risen significantly since Russia began invading the neighbouring country on February 24, and the subsequent blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports by Russian warships.
Western politicians accuse Russia of speculating on a hunger crisis and using it as leverage to get the West to ease sanctions. Moscow rejects these accusations.
GNA