The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is recording a fourth case since April of Russia laundering stolen Ukrainian grain through Egyptian ports.
This is stated in a message from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
“Despite repeated warnings, the vessel ASOMATOS was allowed to unload 26.9 thousand tons of stolen Ukrainian wheat in Abu Qir,” the statement said.
This is already the fourth case of Russia laundering stolen Ukrainian grain in Egyptian ports since April, the ministry noted.
According to the MFA, ASOMATOS was permitted to unload even though five days earlier the Prosecutor General of Ukraine had sent an official request for legal assistance to the Egyptian Ministry of Justice regarding this illegal cargo, exported by the sanctioned Agro-Fregat company through occupied Crimea.
The prosecutor provided all necessary data and legal grounds for the seizure of the vessel and its cargo, the MFA claims.
“Ukraine is a country that for many years played the role of a reliable guarantor of Egypt’s food security, and we do not understand why our Egyptian partners are responding by continuing to accept stolen Ukrainian grain,” said Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.
He called on “Egyptian partners to comply with international law, their own commitments made to us, and the principles of our bilateral relations.”
“Stolen goods from occupied territories must be confiscated, not accepted. Looting is not trade, but complicity that only fuels further aggression,” the minister added.
