Occupiers plan to export “stolen” grain through reopened port of Berdiansk
Valentyna Romanenko — Saturday, 11 June 2022, 13:26
Russian invaders intend to export stolen grain by sea from the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Oblast through the port of Berdiansk.
Source: a protege of the occupiers, the so-called "member of the main council of the military-civil administration of the region", Vladimir Rogov, quoted by the pro-Kremlin media outlet RIA Novosti
The Russians call the removal of the stolen grain "exports".
The first train with grain from Melitopol arrived earlier in occupied Crimea.
According to the "Gauleiter" [Rogov], there are only a few days left before the "restart" of the port in occupied Berdiansk, and now, they say, demining works have been completed there.
Quote: "No one will have problems with buying grain. Currently, the main task is to launch the port of Berdiansk, which will allow farmers to sell more grain and face lower transport costs."
Background:
- In early May, the Zaporizhzhia Oblast Military Administration reported that the invaders were exporting grain and vegetables from the occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia Oblast to Crimea.
- On 4 May, Taras Vysotskyi, First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, said that the Russians had exported a total of about 400,000 tonnes of grain from the four temporarily occupied Ukrainian oblasts - a third of all reserves in the regions.
- On 7 June, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the Russian invaders had opened a land corridor between Russia and occupied Crimea through the temporarily occupied southern oblasts of Ukraine.
- Shoigu added that the Russian occupiers have restored the possibility of running trains on six railway sections between "Russia, Donbas, Ukraine and Crimea" with a total length of 1,200 km. He also said that the delivery of goods to Mariupol, Berdiansk and Kherson had begun.
- The railway connection between Crimea and Ukraine was suspended in 2014, when Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula.
