Moscow-backed Kherson rulers announce sale of Ukrainian grain harvests
Moscow, May 30 (EFE).- Moscow-backed authorities in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson said Monday they would begin selling grain from the province to Russia.
The head of the Kherson Region’s civil-military administration Kirill Stremousov said the grain was being sold because a new harvest was expected.
The full grain harvesting campaign would begin in the Kherson region on June 20, the military chief was quoted as saying by the Ria Novosti agency.
Harvests are first sent to the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014, before continuing to Russia.
Grain sales, Stremousov continued, seek to increase the economic well-being of the region.
Ukraine’s Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova last week accused Moscow of stealing grain harvests in cities under Russian control.
The commissioner, according to the Ukrinform news agency, stressed that the theft of food from occupied territories was a violation of the 1949 Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and a war crime under Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Ukrainian authorities and other Western countries have warned that Russia is blocking the export of products, particularly grains, from Ukraine via the Black Sea, which could cause a global food shortage crisis.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Agrarian Policy reported in early May that Russian forces had stolen between 400,000 and 500,000 tons of grain worth over $100 million.EFE
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