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Russia Has Stolen 15 Million Tonnes of Ukrainian Grain Since 2022, Reuters Reports
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![Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko]( "Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko")
Ukraine estimates that Russia has stolen 15 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain since the start of its full-scale invasion in 2022, blending it with Russian grain and exporting it abroad.
This was reported by Reuters on August 6.
“Taking this season into account, we estimate that Russia has stolen 15 million tons of Ukrainian grain since the start of the full-scale war,” Ukraine's Deputy Economy Minister Taras Vysotskiy told Reuters.
Ukrainian authorities believe that all grain produced in the Russian-occupied regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia—as well as in Crimea, illegally annexed in 2014—has been seized by Moscow, Reuters reported. Kyiv intends to appeal to Western partners to impose sanctions on importers of this illegally obtained grain.
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According to Ukrainian intelligence, stolen Ukrainian wheat is being mixed with Russian grain at Black Sea ports before being shipped for export.
Grain traders told the outlet that once wheat is blended, it is impossible to verify its origin.
According to Russia’s Ministry of Agriculture, the four occupied regions supplied around 3% of Russia’s total grain output last year. Moscow refers to these areas as its “new territories,” although they remain internationally recognized as part of Ukraine.
That supply helped cushion the blow of a poor harvest in southern Russia, which saw a 14% drop due to adverse weather.
According to Reuters, Russian officials have not commented on the legal status of the grain harvested in the occupied regions. Notably, Russia’s federal statistics agency Rosstat and leading consulting firms do not include these territories in their harvest reports—unlike the Agriculture Ministry.
In temporary occupied Luhansk region, Russian-installed authorities reportedly plan to harvest around 1 million tonnes of grain this season, mostly wheat, with a portion designated for export. Prior to occupation, the region produced approximately 1.3 million tonnes in 2013.
Earlier, it was reported that a large-scale locust outbreak is posing a serious threat to sunflower and other essential crops in southern Ukraine, as the ongoing war with Russia has made traditional pest control methods nearly impossible.
