Reuters was informed on Thursday by the Ukrainian embassy in Beirut that Russia had looted Ukrainian warehouses and was transporting barley and wheat out of the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli.
MarineTraffic, a service that provides shipping statistics, reports that the Laodicea arrived in Tripoli on Wednesday.
We assume that the 5,000 tonnes of barley and 5,000 tonnes of flour on board the ship, which departed from a Crimean port forbidden to international trade, were stolen from Ukrainian warehouses, the embassy told Reuters.
The statement read, ‘This is the first time a consignment of stolen grains and flour enters Lebanon.’
Russian officials have repeatedly refuted accusations that they stole grain from Ukraine. Reuters was informed by a representative of the Russian embassy in Lebanon that no immediate comments could be made.
In a meeting with Michel Aoun on Thursday to examine the shipment, Ukrainian Ambassador Ihor Ostash warned him that buying stolen products from Ukraine would ‘damage bilateral ties’ between Kyiv and Beirut, the embassy told Reuters.
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