Russia Has Already Made Four Shipments of Stolen Ukrainian Grain to Israel This Year

This was determined based on documents, an analysis of ship-tracking data, and satellite images.

Four ships carrying stolen Ukrainian grain have already been unloaded in Israel this year.

As the CFTS portal reported, citing the Elevatorist publication, another suspicious vessel arrived in Haifa Bay on Sunday, 26 April, and is currently waiting to enter the port.

This is not the first time that such grain has been imported to Israel. In 2023, approximately one year after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, at least two ships carrying stolen grain arrived in Israel, with at least one of them unloading in the Port of Haifa. These conclusions are based on documents, an analysis of ship-tracking data, and satellite images.

The behavior of seven other ships that unloaded in Israel in 2023 raised suspicions that they were attempting to conceal the origins of their cargoes. Additionally, internal records maintained by the Russian administrations in occupied Ukrainian ports showed over 30 shipments of stolen grain destined for Israel.

According to an investigation by the Israeli publication Haaretz, the suspected bulk carriers that arrived in Israel did not load grain in Russian ports. Instead, they were loaded approximately 10 kilometers offshore during ship-to-ship (STS) transfers, whereby cargo is transferred between ships positioned alongside each other at sea. These transfers took place south of the Kerch Strait in the Black Sea, a passage between Russian territory on one side and Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory on the other.

Before arriving in Israel, some of the bulk carriers had rendezvoused with large cargo ships that Russia uses as floating granaries. Others had cargo transferred to them from small feeder ships that brought stolen grain directly from the occupied territories. While engaging in the STS operation, the ships turned off their Automatic Identification System (AIS) so they could not be tracked. Disabling a ship’s AIS is generally illegal under the International Maritime Organization’s International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea.

However, the transferring of goods on the high seas does not necessarily indicate illegal activity. In some situations, such transfers are necessary. Nevertheless, the fact that the vessels involved turned off their AIS transponders when close to Ukrainian ports and during STS operations and switched them on a few days later, when they were already loaded with wheat, lends credence to suspicions that they loaded wheat stolen from occupied ports.

After loading at sea, the bulk carriers once again turned on their transponders and set sail for Israel. After a few days’ passage, they unloaded the wheat at designated wharves in the ports of Haifa and Ashdod.