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During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian troops in the occupied regions of Ukraine have systematically stolen grain and other products from local farmers.[1] According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, As of May 2022[update], at least 400,000 tons of grain were stolen and exported from Russian-occupied Ukraine. [2][3] A study by the Kyiv School of Economics found that the Russian invasion cost Ukraine's agricultural sector $4.3 billion in destroyed equipment, damaged land and unharvested crops.[4]
As of October 2022[update], the widescale theft of Ukrainian grain was continuing and involved both private companies and Russian state operatives.[5] Some of the stolen grain is transferred and mixed with legitimate goods.[6] The Financial Times identified Nikita Busel, a Russian businessman and the general director of the government-run State Grain Operator, as one of the heads of the operation.[5]
According to an investigation released in June 2024 by the Belarusian Investigative Center, the Schemes project of Radio Liberty's Ukrainian service, and Vyorstka, in 2023, agricultural products worth 6.2 million euros were exported from the occupied territory of the Kherson Oblast, and out of the 6.4 tons of wheat collected, two million tons were exported through Crimean ports. Some of this product was sold to Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iran, and Spain.[7] According to another investigation by the BRC, Schemes, Cyber Partisans, and KibOrg, released in August of the same year, rapeseed is being exported from the Kherson Oblast by people from Ramzan Kadyrov's entourage and their Belarusian business partners; documents were issued for the supply of 4.9 thousand tons of rapeseed to Belarus.[8]
Before 2022
From 2014 until 2022, grain from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic came to Russia. According to the BBC, intermediaries transported grain from Donbas farmers to Russia, passed through customs, everything was paid for by bank transfer, through Russian banks. The grain was unloaded at the warehouses of Russian buyers, and they were already selling grain as Russian.[9]
