Russia has already stolen $1 billion worth of Ukrainian grain, says PM Shmyhal

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal accused Russia of stealing $1 billion worth of Ukrainian grain during a speech at the Grain from Ukraine forum in Kyiv on Saturday.

"The occupiers have prepared technical means to steal and take away 12,000 tons of grain from the occupied territories every day. They succeeded only partially, because the heroic resistance of Ukrainians forced the enemy to retreat. But the amount of stolen goods is impressive - it is millions of tons of grain worth about $1 billion. Robbery of Ukraine by Russia continues even now," said the prime minister.

He believes that Russia should be severely punished for this.

"The highest political leadership of the Russian Federation should be tried not only for the act of aggression, for the strikes on peaceful towns and villages, for the abduction of Ukrainian children, for the massacre in Bucha and Izyum, but also for the theft of Ukrainian grain, for blocking Ukrainian ports, for trying to revive Stalin's Holodomor methods in the 21st century," Shmyhal said.

New data collected in the report of the international human rights organization Global Rights Compliance indicate that Russia was actively preparing to steal grain reserves and starve the Ukrainian population.