Ukraine claims Russia preparing to ship stolen grain to China

Ukraine’s National Resistance Center (NRC) on July 8 claimed that Russia intends to export grain it has stolen from Ukraine to China using software tools that automate the process of collecting and analyzing information on agricultural products, which can then be exported outside the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).

“The introduction of these programs will allow it to expand the geography of looted exports, in particular to China,” the NRC said.

The NRC alleged Russia is actively exporting stolen grain from Ukraine’s occupied territories to Syria and Turkey under the guise of its own harvest.

In June, the Group of Seven (G7) nations, which represents the world’s most economically advanced democracies, began tackling suspected theft of Ukraine’s grain with a plan to use chemical identification of grain origin. Mark Spencer, the United Kingdom’s minister of state for Food, Farming and Fisheries told an International Grains Council (IGC) conference in London on June 12 that Britain was leading on the project, and that G7 countries also were working closely with Ukraine, among the world’s largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil. Ukraine has consistently accused Russia of stealing its grain since Russia’s February 2022 invasion. Russia has denied the thefts.

Russia blockaded grain shipments from Ukraine’s ports for the first five months of the ongoing conflict but signed a deal in July 2022 brokered by the United Nations and Turkey allowing the shipments to resume. The deal has been extended several times since then, but the Ukraine government has speculated that Russia won’t extended the deal when it expires on July 18.

Russia has threatened not to extend the agreement unless a series of demands, including the removal of obstacles to Russian grain and fertilizer exports, are met.

Tags: wheat, agricultural products, stolen, Ukraine, Russia, China, sunflower oil, corn, export, grain