Kyiv/DAMASKUS (dpa-AFX) – Ukraine accuses Russia of using a freighter to deliver stolen grain from occupied territories to Syria. The “Laodicea”, sailing under the Syrian flag, was loaded with barley and flour, the Foreign Ministry announced in Kyiv on Thursday. The grain comes from Russian-occupied areas in eastern Ukraine. According to information from Lebanon, the ship left the Russian port of Kavkaz in the Kerch Strait a week ago. According to website Marinetraffic, it headed for the Mediterranean port of Tartus in Syria on Thursday.
Previously, it had stopped in the duty-free area of neighboring Lebanon to offer grain for sale to local traders, government sources said. After protests from the Ukrainian government, Lebanese authorities confiscated the ship for 72 hours. Investigations had found no evidence of stolen grain, it said. “I allowed the ship to leave Lebanon for Syria,” Transport Minister Ali Hamie told the German Press Agency.
Meanwhile, the freighter “Razoni” – loaded with 26,000 tons of corn from Ukraine – was also on its way to Lebanon. According to the Ukrainian embassy in Lebanon, he is expected in the port of Tripoli on Sunday morning. The “Razoni” left the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odessa on Monday, as the first ship under international agreements. Several other ships are waiting there for permission to also export grain.
Lebanon is in the middle of the worst economic crisis in its history and is urgently waiting for grain imports. Food prices have risen sharply, also because of the war in Ukraine. The country previously imported more than 70 percent of its grain from Ukraine. Three quarters of the population live below the poverty line. The local currency has lost more than 95 percent of its value./jot/DP/ngu