From Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Russian-flagged ships were transporting grain harvested in Ukraine last season and transporting it to Syria, the US satellite imagery company Maxar said on Thursday.
Images of Maxar show two bulk carriers under the Russian flag, moored in the Russian-controlled Crimean port of Sevastopol in May and loaded with grain, the company said.
Days later, Maxar satellites collected images of the same ships moored in Syria, with open hatches and stacked semi-trucks ready to haul the grain, Maxar said. Syria and Russia are loyal allies.
The company said another June image also shows a different ship loaded with grain in Sevastopol.
Ukraine has accused Russia of stealing grain from territories occupied by Russian forces since the beginning of its invasion in late February. The war threatens to cause severe food shortages, as Russia and Ukraine account for about 29% of world wheat exports.
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest grain exporters, and Western countries have accused Russia of risking global hunger by closing Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.
On June 8, the deputy head of the Union of Ukrainian Farmers UAC said that Russia had stolen about 600,000 tons of grain from the occupied territories and exported some of it.
Russia called its actions in Ukraine a “special military operation”, claiming that its goal was to disarm and “disinfect” its neighbor. The West and Ukraine say this is a pretext for unprovoked aggression.
(Report by Kanishka Singh in Washington; edited by Grant McCool)
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