Ukraine’s president on Tuesday criticized Israel for buying grain allegedly “stolen” by Russia, which has seized large areas of Ukrainian agricultural land amid its invasion.
Ukraine summoned Israel’s ambassador for the first time on Monday, with Foreign Minister Andriy Sbiha expressing regret over Israel’s inaction in allowing food items from occupied Ukrainian territory to enter Israel.
Both Russia and Ukraine are major agricultural exporters, with Russia being the largest wheat exporter in the world and Ukraine also comfortably in the top 10, according to 2023 data from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
What did Zelensky say about the alleged deliveries from Russia?
“Another ship carrying such grain has arrived at a port in Israel and is preparing to unload,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said online on Tuesday. “This is not – and cannot be – a legitimate business.”
“Israeli authorities cannot be ignorant of which ships are arriving at the country’s ports and what cargo they are carrying,” Zelensky said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar earlier told his Ukrainian counterpart Sibiha that Kiev had not provided evidence to support its allegation that the grain was stolen. He also said that such diplomacy should not be conducted exclusively online or through the media “Among the Allies.”
How did Russia react to the matter?
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the matter on Tuesday, saying it was for the two countries to resolve.
“We would not like to comment on this in any way or get involved in this matter,” he told reporters during a briefing in Moscow.
Kiev considers all grain produced in its occupied territories – including lands seized after Russia’s full-scale 2022 invasion and Crimea, which it illegally annexed in 2014 – as stolen by Moscow.
Russia refers to the four territories it will occupy from 2022 onwards as its “new territories”, but they are still recognized internationally as Ukrainian.
Zelensky said that Russia is “systematically seizing grain on temporarily occupied Ukrainian lands and organizing its export through individuals associated with the occupiers.” He said that such plans also violate Israeli laws.
He said his government was preparing a “relevant sanctions package” to target both those transporting grain and “those attempting to profit from this criminal scheme.”
Edited by: Srinivas Majumdaru