The Russians send Ukrainian grain to Crimea by train and truck from the occupied territories

The grain from the Russian-occupied territories of Zaporizhia and Khersonskaya is being transported to Crimea by train and special trucks, writes the Russian service of the BBC.

At least some of the silos coming from these areas, in the Kerch area and on the Jankoge-Simferopol road, were found to be trucks with Ukrainian license plates, Radio Svoboda (Radio Liberty) wrote. In some motorcades there were five to ten trucks at a time, each carrying 30-50 tons of grain.

However, as the BBC points out, trucks are not enough. From the beginning of June in the specialized chat rooms of the Telegram application, where agricultural producers or intermediaries are looking for silo vehicles, advertisements for the transport of agricultural products outside Ukraine appear. In one of these ads there was a report that during the transfer, there will be military escort on Ukrainian territory.

The owner of the Novovrosysk transport company “Aftoplius”, Aleftina Pontina, told the BBC that “there are volumes”, but the payment for the transport is made in cash. The BBC reporter called her pretending to be the owner of a silo truck, who would like to place an order. Evpatoria resident Igor Atrashenko, a freight forwarder, said on June 8 that his own “kids” had been transporting grain from Russian-occupied areas to warehouses in Zhankogo for more than a month. Generally in the convoy that reaches up to 13 trucks, all four have Ukrainian license plates.

Atrashenko boasted that his own silos crossed the border in half an hour, while others waited in line for 12-20 hours. The existence of queues was also confirmed by the businessman Nikolai Riabis, to whom the BBC journalist called pretending to be someone who is ready to transport Ukrainian grain.

BBC reporters confirm the queue of trucks at the administrative borders of Crimea and in the southern part of Ukraine with satellite photos. However, checkpoints are being checked, although Russia currently controls both areas. In addition to Djankoje, in the Telegram chats there are ads that the grain is being transported to the port of Sevastopol.

Crimean Governor Sergei Aksyonov has claimed that the region is self-sufficient in grain, but that what is exported from the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine “transits through Crimea and then ends up in Sevastopol for sale.” Part of the exported grain undoubtedly belongs to the Ukrainian state, another part to farmers and agricultural consortia. The BBC points out that some of the farmers start selling grain so as not to get lost. Riabis assured a BBC reporter that only grain sold by farmers was transported from Ukraine. The same was claimed by another BBC interlocutor, to whom the journalist called to confirm this view.

The Russian Ministry of Agricultural Economy did not answer a BBC question about Ukraine’s cereals. The Ukrainian authorities characterize the export of grain from the areas occupied by the Russians as looting.

Source: BBC (Russian service)