Russia seeking buyers for stolen Ukrainian grain: report

The United States has warned 14 countries that Russia might offer to sell them plundered Ukrainian grain, news outlets have reported.

The United States has warned 14 countries that Russia might try to sell them plundered Ukrainian grain, according to news outlets.

Image by Mohammed Hijaz from Pixabay.

The alert was issued last month, Poland’s forsal.pl website wrote this week, citing The New York Times. 

America sent the warning to countries from eastern and northern Africa, such as Kenya and Tanzania, as well as the likes of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Turkey, forsal.pl noted.

The U.S. alerted 14 countries, mostly in Africa, that Russian ships carrying stolen Ukrainian grain could be headed their way, posing a dilemma to countries facing dire food shortages.https://t.co/nl9tmN49uP

— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 6, 2022

Famine-threatened Africa likely to buy stolen grain: experts

However, according to experts quoted by The New York Times, the African countries are likely to accept the Russian offer, even if the grain is stolen, forsal.pl wrote.

This is because the food shortages on the continent are so dire, the experts told The New York Times, as cited by forsal.pl. 

Before Russia invaded Ukraine in February, both countries were major suppliers of grain to Africa, accounting for 40 percent of imported wheat, for instance, the US daily wrote, as reported by forsal.pl.

Russia steals Ukrainian grain

The US State Department declined to comment on the NYT story, but noted that theft of Ukrainian grain by Russian troops was well-documented, forsal.pl reported. 

Since the invasion, Russia has stolen some 500,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat, worth USD 100 million, the Ukrainian government has estimated, according to The New York Times, as quoted by forsal.pl.

Tuesday is day 104 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

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Source: forsal.pl, nytimes.com