Egypt refuses Russian ship with cargo of stolen Ukrainian wheat

Egypt has refused entry to a Russian freighter carrying 30,000 tons of wheat at Alexandria port after the cargo was believed to have been stolen by the Russians in Ukraine.

The ship had picked up the landing in April in the port of Sevastopol in Crimea, and has since sailed to the Syrian port of Latakia. But the cargo is not yet unloaded there either.

After Ukraine said the grain was likely to come from Russian-occupied gebieden, the two countries refused to buy the ship's cargo. According to the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform, two other ships in the Mediterranean are also currently looking for buyers for "looted grain". 

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba accused Moscow of being "a triple criminal". Russia first bombed Syria, then occupied part of Ukraine and now wants to sell the stolen Ukrainian grain to Syria. 

Minister Kuleba reminded potential buyers that iedereen involved in the sale, transportation and purchase becomes complicit in the crime. According to him, Russia has already stolen up to 500,000 tons of grain from Ukraine and it can be assumed that every cargo ship currently docking in Sevastopol contains stolen goods.

According to Ukrainian authorities and open source investigations, the merchant vessel in question is one of at least three vessels involved in the trade in stolen grain. The company that owns the ship is not on international sanctions lists, according to CNN.

The Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula does not produce much wheat itself due to poor irrigation systems. According to the Ukrainian authorities, thousands of tons of grain are currently being transported by truck to Crimea.