Turkey detains Russian ship carrying 'stolen' Ukrainian grain

Kyiv had asked Ankara to seize the 'Zhibek Zholy' cargo vessel

The Russian-flagged cargo ship was anchored near Turkey's Karasu port on Sunday. Reuters

Turkey has detained a Russian cargo ship carrying grain that Ukraine says is stolen, Kyiv's ambassador in Ankara said.

“We have full co-operation,” Vasyl Bodnar said on Ukrainian national television on Sunday. “The ship is currently standing at the entrance to the port. It has been detained by the customs authorities of Turkey.”

Ukraine had asked Turkey to detain the Russian-flagged Zhibek Zholy cargo ship. The vessel was anchored about a kilometre from shore, near Karasu port, on Sunday, an official told Reuters.

The report said there had been no obvious signs of movement aboard the vessel.

The fate of the 7,146-deadweight-tonne ship will be decided when investigators meet on Monday, with Ukraine hoping that Turkish authorities confiscate the grain, Mr Bodnar said.

Ukraine has accused Russia of stealing grain from territories it has seized since its invasion began in late February. The Kremlin has denied the claims.

A Ukrainian Foreign Ministry official told Reuters on Friday that the Zhibek Zholy loaded its first cargo of about 4,500 tonnes of grain from Berdyansk, a Russian-occupied port in south Ukraine.

The region's Sakarya port authority and Turkey's foreign ministry did not immediately comment, Reuters reported.

The BBC said it had tracked the Russian-flagged ship on its route from the port of Berdyansk, in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region, to Karasu on the Turkish Black Sea coast.

The ship's departure from Berdyansk was announced by Yevhen Balytskyi, Russia's recently appointed governor of the occupied areas of Zaporizhzhia, on social media app Telegram. He said 7,000 tonnes of grain would be sent to “friendly” countries and ships — later editing the post to remove references to the ship's cargo and destination.

He said in the post that Russia's Black Sea Fleet would “ensure the security” of the journey and that the port had been cleared of sea mines.

The BBC said it had confirmed a video news report shared on several pro-Russia Telegram channels in which a reporter claimed the ship, along with a Russian naval vessel, was in a harbour in Berdyansk.

Kazakh-based company KTZ Express had previously confirmed to Reuters it owned the Zhibek Zholy, but said it was taken under a bare boat charter — when no crew or supplies are involved in the lease — by Russian company Green-Line, which was not designated under any sanctions.

KTZ Express said it was consulting the parties involved and would abide by all sanctions and restrictions.

Large stores of grain are in danger of rotting in Ukrainian silos, with July’s harvest set to make the problem even more urgent.

Ukraine previously supplied 10 per cent of the world’s wheat, up to 17 per cent of the world’s maize and half of the world’s sunflower oil. About 25 million tonnes of corn and wheat is at risk of rotting in Ukrainian silos.

Last month, the UK offered to help grain exports leave Ukrainian ports under a UN plan as Foreign Secretary Liz Truss accused Vladimir Putin of “using food security as a callous tool of war”.

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