Prosecutor General's Office charges Russian Deputy Agriculture Minister with stealing UAH 23 bln worth of Ukrainian grain

Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) has charged a Russian Deputy Minister of Agriculture with the large-scale unlawful appropriation of assets belonging to Ukrainian agribusiness enterprises of both state and private ownership.

According to the PGO, the official, acting in collusion with the leadership of the aggressor state and the heads of occupation administrations in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson regions, organized the theft of Ukrainian grain and other agricultural assets between the start of the full-scale invasion and December 31, 2023.

The stolen property included assets of well-known Ukrainian companies such as Nibulon LLC, TESSLAGROUP, Kernel-Trade LLC, the State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine, and others.

Ukrainian authorities estimate the total amount of grain appropriated by the Russian official at over 4.136 million metric tons, valued at more than UAH 23 billion.

The stolen products were transported to Russia and temporarily occupied Crimea, from where they were later exported by sea as goods of Russian origin to Syria, Egypt, Türkiye, Lebanon, and other countries.

"These actions are not justified by any military necessity and constitute a gross violation of international humanitarian law," the Prosecutor General's Office said.

Based on the collected evidence, the Russian Deputy Agriculture Minister has been notified of suspicion under Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (violation of the laws and customs of war). The article carries a penalty of eight to twelve years in prison.

The pre-trial investigation is being conducted by investigators from the Security Service of Ukraine's Main Investigation Department, with operational support from other Security Service units.

Earlier, suspicion had also been formally announced against Russia's Minister of Agriculture and one of the department heads of the same ministry. The identification of other involved Russian officials is ongoing.