Russian ships and trains steal millions of pounds of Ukrainian grain as prices soar and 44m ‘march towards starvation’

RUSSIAN ships and trains pillaged millions of pounds of Ukrainian grain yesterday — as the UN warned of a global food crisis.

Satellite pictures showed cargo vessels filling their holds in Sevastopol, a port in Russian-held Crimea.

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Tyrant Vladimir Putin’s plunderers have also swapped trucks with trains to race the loot to Black Sea ports more quickly. 

Yevhen Balytskyi, puppet governor of the Zaporizhzhia region that includes the city of Melitopol, boasted: “I’m proud and happy to be the first to inform you that the first railway carriages and 11 wagons have gone to Crimea with grain from a Melitopol grain silo.”

He claimed thousands of wagons will move the grain in future.

Ukraine, the world’s fourth largest exporter, said 500,000 tons of grain worth £160million have been stolen since war started on February 24. At least 100,000 tons went to Putin’s allies in Syria. One ship was seen docking there yesterday.

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The UN warned that climate change, war and Russia’s Black Sea blockade had sent grain prices soaring and left 44million people “marching towards starvation”.

In Africa, farmers are also facing the worst drought in 40 years.

Britain called for an investigation after the US warned 14 countries that they risked buying stolen grain.

America’s top diplomat Antony Blinken said Russia was “pilfering” grain for its own profit.

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UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace blasted Russia for behaving like gangsters.

On a trip to Iceland’s capital Reykjavik to discuss bolstering security in Arctic states bordering Russia, Mr Wallace said: “We shouldn’t be surprised that Russia is stealing grain. 

“They’ve been stealing everything from washing machines to jewellery, to make-up to everything else. 

“If Russia thinks it’s going to be using the position of an illegal invasion to blackmail the West with their own grain, they need to think again.”

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday denied there was a grain supply problem at talks to lift the Black Sea blockade. 

Speaking in Turkey, he said: “Grain can be freely transported. There are no obstacles from Russia.”

But Ukraine dismissed his “empty words” and warned Russia’s navy could use planned “grain corridors” to attack its southern coast.

Kyiv’s Foreign Ministry said: “Military equipment is required to protect the coastline and a navy mission to patrol export routes.”

Ukraine’s defenders mined the coast and scuttled a ship at the entrance to its largest port, Odesa, to block a Russian assault.

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Now 20million tons of grain are trapped in Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky warned the figure would triple by the end of the harvest.

The country can only export two million tons a month by road, river and rail — a third of its normal supply.

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