UKRAINIAN and western sources say Russia is looting grain from the Pontic Steppe, a rich black earth region that runs across the eastern and southern regions of the country, extending into Russia to Kazakhstan and the Caspian Sea, according to London's Daily Telegraph.
The russians are said to be seizing and selling what Ukrainian grain they find in regions they occupy, then remove it via Black Sea ports, while denying Ukrainian exporters market access by blockading their ports of Odessa and Mykolaiv. But Russia denies this.
Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi said 'several hundred thousand tons' had been looted presumably trucked to Russian-occupied Crimea for shipping abroad.
Ukraine has also requested that Turkey detain and arrest the 7,146-dwt Zhibek Zholy, a Russian-flagged breakbulk ship that arrived in the Turkish Black Sea Port of Karasu for the 'illegal export of Ukrainian grain' from the occupied Port of Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov.
The Ukrainian prosecutor general's office asked Turkey to 'conduct an inspection of this sea vessel, seize samples of grain for forensic examination, demand information on the location of such grain', which has already arrived in the Turkish port of Karasu.
London's Lloyd's List identified nine vessels involved in suspicious behaviour consistent with grain smuggling: the Russian-flagged Matros Koshka, Matros Pozynich, Mikhail Nenashev, Nadezhda, Vera, Fedor, and Sormovsky 48, and the Syrian-flagged Finikia and Souria.
All are capable of moving grain. All appeared to be sailing between Crimea and ports in Turkey and Syria, and all of them have been turning off their transponders in the Black Sea - a technically illegal but largely ignored more often associated with Iranian tankers trying to evade US oil sanctions.
The 28,434-dwt bulk carrier Matros Koshka last vanished as it crossed the Black Sea on May 18. It reappeared on May 24 in a part of the Kerch Strait called the Kavkaz Anchorage, an area used by shipping headed to and from Russian ports on the Azov and eastern Black Sea.
It then sailed through the Bosporus, around Turkey, and on May 30, just off Cyprus, vanished again - only to reappear on June 8 about 60 nautical miles off Lebanon.
It sailed back to the Black Sea and vanished for the final time off the northern coast of Turkey. At the time of writing it has not reappeared.
SeaNews Turkey
The russians are said to be seizing and selling what Ukrainian grain they find in regions they occupy, then remove it via Black Sea ports, while denying Ukrainian exporters market access by blockading their ports of Odessa and Mykolaiv. But Russia denies this.
Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi said 'several hundred thousand tons' had been looted presumably trucked to Russian-occupied Crimea for shipping abroad.
Ukraine has also requested that Turkey detain and arrest the 7,146-dwt Zhibek Zholy, a Russian-flagged breakbulk ship that arrived in the Turkish Black Sea Port of Karasu for the 'illegal export of Ukrainian grain' from the occupied Port of Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov.
The Ukrainian prosecutor general's office asked Turkey to 'conduct an inspection of this sea vessel, seize samples of grain for forensic examination, demand information on the location of such grain', which has already arrived in the Turkish port of Karasu.
London's Lloyd's List identified nine vessels involved in suspicious behaviour consistent with grain smuggling: the Russian-flagged Matros Koshka, Matros Pozynich, Mikhail Nenashev, Nadezhda, Vera, Fedor, and Sormovsky 48, and the Syrian-flagged Finikia and Souria.
All are capable of moving grain. All appeared to be sailing between Crimea and ports in Turkey and Syria, and all of them have been turning off their transponders in the Black Sea - a technically illegal but largely ignored more often associated with Iranian tankers trying to evade US oil sanctions.
The 28,434-dwt bulk carrier Matros Koshka last vanished as it crossed the Black Sea on May 18. It reappeared on May 24 in a part of the Kerch Strait called the Kavkaz Anchorage, an area used by shipping headed to and from Russian ports on the Azov and eastern Black Sea.
It then sailed through the Bosporus, around Turkey, and on May 30, just off Cyprus, vanished again - only to reappear on June 8 about 60 nautical miles off Lebanon.
It sailed back to the Black Sea and vanished for the final time off the northern coast of Turkey. At the time of writing it has not reappeared.
SeaNews Turkey