Main points
- Russia has accused Israel of making concessions to Ukraine after refusing to accept a shipment of grain that Kyiv considers to have been exported from the occupied territories.
- Ukraine and Israel may sign a memorandum of cooperation to prevent the import of illegally exported grain from the occupied regions.
Russians try to sell stolen grain / Photo MarineTraffic, Filippos Filippou
Russia has accused Israel of making concessions to Ukraine after refusing to accept a shipment of grain at the port of Haifa. Kyiv claims the grain was taken from occupied territories of Ukraine.
Russia responded to the refusal to accept grain
Russia's Foreign Ministry has criticized an Israeli import company's decision not to unload a shipment of grain that arrived at the port of Haifa last month, Reuters reports, saying the decision was allegedly made under pressure from Ukraine.
The Russian side also called Kyiv's accusations regarding the origin of the grain “baseless.”
Ukraine insists that the cargo was taken by Russia from temporarily occupied territories during the war. In Kyiv, Israel's refusal to accept the grain was called the result of effective diplomatic and legal work.
Moscow spoke about the risks to cooperation and food
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the situation allegedly contradicts Israel's intentions to support economic cooperation with Russia. Moscow also expressed the opinion that such decisions could affect Israel's food security.
At the same time, the Ukrainian side continues to emphasize the need to block the supply of products that could have been illegally exported from the occupied regions.
The issue of grain exports from temporarily occupied territories has repeatedly become a subject of international controversy since the beginning of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.
Ukraine and Israel may introduce control over the origin of grain
It also became known that Ukraine and Israel may sign a memorandum of cooperation, which should help prevent the import of grain illegally exported from the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories, RBC-Ukraine reports.
As the publication reported, the initiator of such an agreement was the Israeli Association of Agricultural Importers.
It is assumed that the Ukrainian side will participate in the inspection of grain ships heading to Israel to confirm that the cargo does not originate from the Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine.
Ukraine filed a complaint with the Israeli police against a company that bought wheat stolen by the Russians
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We previously reported that the Ukrainian Embassy in Israel filed complaints against companies suspected of importing wheat from the occupied territories with the police and financial control authorities.
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The Ukrainian side requests a laboratory analysis of the grain and the seizure of ship documentation to establish the origin of the grain.
Following the allegations, Dizengoff Trading announced a suspension of new purchases of Russian wheat, although it denied violating international rules. Meanwhile, Zenziper refused to unload another vessel that also raised suspicions, after which it left the Israeli coast.