Kyiv, April 30 (Reuters) – Russian forces have stolen “several hundred thousand tons” of grain in the regions of Ukraine they occupy, Ukraine’s deputy agriculture minister said on Saturday.
Speaking to Ukrainian national television, Taras Vysotsky expressed concern that most of what he said was 1.5 million tonnes of grain stored in the occupied territories that could also be stolen by Russian forces.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry accused Russia on Thursday of stealing grain from its occupied territory, an act he said increases the threat to global food security. Read more
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Agriculture Minister Nikola Solski said grain thefts have increased over the past two weeks.
“I personally hear this from many owners of silos in the occupied territories. This is an outright robbery. And this is happening everywhere in the occupied territories,” Solski was quoted as saying by the ministry.
He said such a situation could create food problems in areas that are not currently under control.
“There will soon be a wheat harvest in the south. But farmers in this situation can say, “Here are the keys to the tractor – go pick it up yourself if you want,” Solski said.
The Kremlin has denied Ukraine’s allegations, saying it did not know where the information came from.
The Ministry of Agriculture said on Friday that six regions in Ukraine have completed their early spring sowing of cereals despite the Russian invasion.
Ukraine is divided into 24 regions, but there are no plans to sow grain in Luhansk to the east due to heavy fighting there.
The ministry did not give a forecast for the grain harvest for 2022, while analysts predict a yield of 41.4 million tons this year compared to 86 million tons in 2021.
The consulting company APK-Inform said that grain exports 2022/23 could amount to 33.2 million tons against 45.5 million expected for the 2021/22 season, which ends in June.
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Report by Pavel Polityuk; Edited by William Mallard and Hugh Lawson
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