Foreign Ministry: Israel has received multiple shipments of stolen Ukrainian grain
This was stated to journalists by Heorhii Tykhyi, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, according to a Ukrinform correspondent.
“I can confirm that we are not talking about two ships; there were more. I cannot give exact figures right now, but we are talking about several vessels. This is true. And we have informed Israel about all of them,” Tykhyi said.
The diplomat noted that Ukraine had approached Israel through closed channels, but after “dozens” of appeals, it received only one official response from the Israeli Foreign Ministry on April 20.
“To put it simply, the State of Israel does not intend to take any action regarding these shipments and Ukrainian concerns, believing that the information provided by Ukraine is insufficient for them. This is the reason for our public engagement,” emphasized the spokesperson for the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
As reported by Ukrinform, Ukraine demands that the Israeli side immediately take measures to halt the import of grain stolen by Russia from temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories and prevent its unloading at Israeli ports.
On April 15, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha drew the attention of his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Saar, to a Russian ship carrying stolen Ukrainian agricultural products that had docked at one of Israel’s ports.
Kateryna Yaresko, a journalist with the SeaKrime investigative project of the Myrotvorets Center, reported that on April 12, Israel allowed the Russian bulk carrier ABINSK (IMO: 9303869) to enter the port of Haifa. The ship delivered 43,700 tons of wheat taken from the occupied territories of Ukraine.
Israel informed Ukraine that it was already too late to detain the Russian vessel accused of transporting stolen Ukrainian grain, as it had already left the port of Haifa.
On April 27, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, in response to news that Israel had accepted a second ship carrying stolen Ukrainian grain, stated that the Israeli ambassador had been summoned to the Foreign Ministry.
