Zelenskyy challenges Israel over grain from Russia-occupied land
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stepped up pressure on Israel, threatening to impose sanctions over the alleged import of grain from Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia.
Tensions escalated this week as the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on Monday summoned Israel’s ambassador over a vessel delivering what Kyiv says is stolen grain from Russian occupied territories to Haifa port.
“In any normal country, purchasing stolen goods is an act that entails legal liability. This applies, in particular, to grain stolen by Russia,” Zelenskyy said Tuesday in a post on X. “The Israeli authorities cannot be unaware of which ships are arriving at the country’s ports and what cargo they are carrying.”
Ukrainian officials had alerted Israel before the arrival of a ship — named Abinsk — in Haifa two weeks ago, loaded with wheat worth millions of dollars from Russian occupied territories.
Ukraine linked the vessel to Moscow’s shadow fleet, which it uses for illegal exports that help finance the war and urged Israel to seize it. Kyiv later expressed concern that the ship was nonetheless allowed to unload between April 12 to 14.
Ukraine is preparing a sanctions package targeting those involved in transporting the grain, as well as individuals and companies seeking to profit from the scheme, Zelenskyy said. Kyiv also plans to work with European partners to have those parties included in EU sanctions lists, he added.
Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that another ship carrying such grain had reached an Israeli port and was preparing to unload, without specifying the source of the information. The president added that Ukraine had taken all necessary diplomatic steps to prevent such incidents, but Israel had not cooperated.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar in response criticized what he called the “Twitter diplomacy” pursued by Ukraine, adding that the claims must be backed by evidence submitted through proper legal channels.
“The vessel has not entered the port and has yet to submit its documents,” he told reporters in Jerusalem. “It’s not possible to verify the truth of the Ukrainian claims.”
Sa’ar only referenced the latest ship to arrive in Israeli waters, declining to comment on previous incidents.
Relations between Israel and Ukraine have been uneasy since the Kremlin launched its full scale invasion in 2022. Although Israel didn’t openly support President Vladimir Putin, it also didn’t formally join Western sanctions on Russia. Instead the authorities took a cautious approach, imposing some limited financial restrictions and seeking to avoid provoking Moscow, while providing some early warning technology to its military along with medical and humanitarian assistance.
In addition to Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, Moscow has occupied parts of Ukraine’s Donbas, as well as areas of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, all of which are major producers of agricultural products, including grain. Russia harvested about 4 million tons of grain on that land last year.
Ukraine earlier in April raised a similar issue with Egypt. Zelenskyy said that President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi told him Cairo would stop accepting grain originating from territories Russia has seized from Ukraine.