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With a deepwater port that can accommodate large ships, he says, Sevastopol is “without false modesty, by far the best” port from which to export grain. The FT has identified grain exports from Crimea that took place prior to this year to Syria, a Russian ally that disregards US sanctions, as well as to Libya and Turkey.Īccording to one Russian grain exporter, it is quick and cheap to move grain through Crimea because of its infrastructure and position. Russia wants to encourage trade through Sevastopol to integrate Crimea into the rest of the country and to build international acceptance of its occupation of the region. Several of the businesses integral to the shipping of grain from Crimea are subsidiaries of Russian state enterprises. But Moscow has also sought to develop the port as a commercial enterprise. When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, it gained complete control of the naval base in Sevastopol that had long been the home to its Black Sea fleet. Russia has announced it is beginning to reopen other Black Sea ports that have been occupied, including Berdyansk and Mariupol, and has been accused of using techniques deployed in the illegal grain trade to smuggle out steel seized by Russian forces.Īccording to Matthew Wright, a senior freight analyst at Kpler, a commodities analytics company, the shipments that have come from Sevastopol in recent weeks are “perhaps the most blatantly illegal grain entering the market - maybe stolen, definitely from a sanctioned source and photographed in the act”. Although it is only a modest port, it has also seen a significant and unseasonal increase in declared exports in recent months. The evidence from Sevastopol is supported by the activity at Port Kavkaz in Russia, along the coast from Crimea, which industry executives say is a key location for enabling the smuggling of goods from the region. The other three - carrying about 43,000 tonnes - went to Turkey. Four were sent to Syria, with customs and port declarations suggesting this flow was of about 90,000 tonnes. Of the eight vessels photographed in Sevastopol, one could not be identified or tracked. Given that Russia is one of the world’s biggest food exporters, that represents a substantial volume of grain being shipped out of a port that is under international sanctions.
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This total flow is equivalent to about 6 per cent of known Russian grain exports during the month, according to shipping data platform Sea/. In early June, Russian state media acknowledged that grain was being sent from Melitopol, in the occupied south of Ukraine, to be exported from Crimea.įT analysis of satellite photographs, combined with port records, suggests that in May alone, around 140,000 tonnes of grain were exported from the Sevastopol terminal in eight separate shipments. Companies trading with the occupied territory also risk action by Ukrainian prosecutors.īut in recent weeks, the shipments have become even more controversial after Ukrainian authorities claimed Crimean ports, including Sevastopol, are being used to export grain looted from their country, primarily from areas of the south-east that have been occupied by Russian forces this year. The registered owners of Sevastopol’s grain terminal have been directly targeted by US sanctions for being a subsidiary of a Russian state-owned enterprise, United Shipbuilding Corporation. The satellite photographs appear to show the ship being filled.Įven before Russian troops poured into Ukraine in February, shipping goods out of Crimea was illegal for many companies: the region has been covered by a patchwork of sanctions since it was annexed in 2014. The photos show it moored at the Aval terminal, which loads ships with grains - including corn. Using photos from Planet Labs, a satellite photography platform, the Financial Times has corroborated this visit.