Residents of Russian-occupied Berdiansk noticed the movement of two Russian commercial ships that were probably loaded with stolen Ukrainian grain in the port of Berdiansk from 18 to 22 April.
This is stated in a report by the Center for Journalistic Investigations, the CFTS portal reports.
According to the Center for Journalistic Investigations, a local Telegram channel wrote on 19 April that the Russian barge, Samarskaya-1, which previously entered the port in the occupied Ukrainian city several times, had arrived at the port to be loaded. However, other photographs posted on social media indicate that the vessel that entered the port is visually different from the abovementioned barge.
According to MarineTraffic, a maritime analytics provider that provides real-time information on the movements of ships and the current location of ships in harbors and ports, three vessels physically similar to the bulk carrier that was seen in the Berdiansk seaport were in the Sea of Azov with disabled AIS systems as of 20 April.
All these three Russian dry cargo ships (Andrei Zuev, Vladimir, and Idel-1) left the port of Azov and were supposed to go to Novorossiysk. One of them probably entered the Berdiansk seaport illegally.
Berdiansk residents spotted another vessel heading to the seized seaport on 21 April. As of the evening of 22 April, this second ship was approximately at berth No. 4 to load grain, sunflower, or other grain that was stolen from farmers in the occupied part of the Zaporizhia region.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in its military summary for 24 April, "The Russian occupiers continue to rob the Ukrainian civilian population by appropriating their grain harvest. For example, the so-called Russian occupation ‘authorities’ in the city of Berdiansk (Zaporizhia region) are trying to export stolen grain by loading it onto enemy cargo ships."
The CFTS portal reported on 17 April that stolen Ukrainian corn was being loaded onto a Russian ship in the port of Berdiansk.
A month earlier, the Ukrainian military reported that the Russian occupiers had exported a cargo of wheat through the port.
