- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has wrought chaos on the Pontic Steppe, the fertile black earth region that produces a disproportionate quantity of the world’s cereals.
- As many as 25 African countries, including many least developed countries, import more than a third of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine.
- The United Nations has warned of a food crisis if the standoff is not resolved.
Since it disappeared off the northern coast of Turkey three weeks ago, one bulk carrier, the 170m long Matros Koshka, has not been located as reported by The Telegraph.
Vanishing ships
At 170 metres long, with a red hull, white painted superstructure and towering deck cranes, the Matros Koshka is difficult to miss.
The vanishing ship is one of nearly a dozen Russian and Syrian flagged vessels at the centre of what Western governments believe is large-scale smuggling of looted Ukrainian grain.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has wrought chaos on the Pontic Steppe, the fertile black earth region that produces a disproportionate quantity of the world’s cereals.
As many as 25 African countries, including many least developed countries, import more than a third of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine.
The United Nations has warned of a food crisis if the standoff is not resolved.
Resuming exports
Russia denies blocking grain shipments and said its retreat from Snake Island on Thursday was a goodwill gesture to allow exports to resume.
According to Ukrainian and Western officials, Moscow has also systematically looted wheat from areas it has occupied since the war began.
It came a day after Yevgeny Balitsky, a Russian-installed official in the occupied zone of the Zaporizhzhia region, said the first ship to leave Berdyansk’s port since Russia captured it at the beginning of the war was carrying 7,000 tons of grain to unnamed “friendly countries”.
He later edited the Telegram post to remove any reference to the ship’s cargo.
The Zhibek Zholy is only the latest vessel to be implicated in the alleged smuggling operation.
Shifting grains
All are bulk carriers or general cargo carriers capable of shifting grain.
Matros Koshka’s recent voyages are typical.
It last vanished as it crossed the Black Sea on May 18.
At the time of writing it has not reappeared.
Photographs obtained by SeaKrime, a Ukrainian activist group monitoring suspicious shipping, showed the vessel docked at a grain terminal in Sevastopol, the main port in Russian-occupied Crimea, while it was “blacked out” between May 19 and May 24.
“There is a clause allowing you to run it off if the security of the ship is threatened – that was implemented in 2011 when Somali piracy was at its height.”
But it is highly unusual for AIS to be turned off unless the vessel wants to obscure its destination – specifically to avoid sanctions and obfuscate its destination, origin, cargo transfers, and vessel callings.
Diplomatic efforts to intercept the alleged illegal shipments have had mixed results.
The Lloyd’s List investigation suggests the ships have been running deliveries to ports in Syria, a close Russian ally, and Turkey, a NATO member that imports large quantities of Russian and Ukrainian grain for milling into flour.
Turkish authorities have denied allowing illegal grain imports.
But industry experts say that in reality, policing grain shipments is a difficult if not impossible task.
Frauds
Ukrainian and Russian wheat have different official protein standards – 11.5 and 12.5 respectively – but in other respects are more or less indistinguishable.
“Buyers will ask for assurances from the sellers that this is not looted Ukrainian wheat, but there will be ways and means of dressing it up to come out as Russian origin grain,“ he added.
He said he was not aware that any such fraud had actually taken place.
Even if the testing idea worked, it is not exactly clear what could be done to stop such sales.
G7 leaders said after their summit in Germany last week that the next round of sanctions against Russia will target individuals suspected of profiteering in occupied areas, including those involved in the theft of grain.
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Source: The Telegraph
