kyiv regularly accuses Russia of stealing Ukraine’s crops in the areas it occupies, for domestic consumption or to sell them abroad illegally.
A Lebanese prosecutor on Saturday ordered the seizure of a Syrian-flagged ship that docked at a port in the north of the country with a cargo of Ukrainian grain.stolen“, according to the embassy of kyiv in Beirut.
The Ukrainian authorities regularly accuse Russia of stealing Ukraine’s crops in the areas it occupies, for domestic consumption or to sell them abroad illegally.
Protests and warnings
In Beirut, prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat instructed the police to investigate the ship case “Laodicea“Anchored in the port of Tripoli, in northern Lebanon, a justice official told AFP.
Ukraine’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Ihor Ostash, announced on Thursday that he had met Lebanese President Michel Aoun and discussed “the entry of a Syrian ship (…) illegally loaded with barley from occupied Ukrainian territories».
On Friday, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib announced on his Twitter account that he had received “a number of protests and warnings from several Western countries after the arrival of a Syrian-flagged ship loaded with flour and barley».
According to initial information, the director of the charter company is Turkish, while the goods belong to a Syrian merchant, the justice official said, adding that part of the cargo should be unloaded in Lebanon and the rest in Syria.
A customs official told AFP on Friday that after verification, “the papers of the goods were in order and that there was no proof that they had arrived in Lebanon stolen».
The incident comes in a country in the midst of economic collapse and suffering from wheat shortages. Lebanese are lining up for bags of subsidized bread, as the country imports 80% of its wheat from Ukraine.
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