Intelligence agency says how much grain Russia stole from Ukraine in 2025

Russia exported more than 2m tonnes of grain worth about 400m dollars from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine in 2025, using the ports of Crimea, Zaporizhzhya and Donetsk regions. This was stated by the first deputy head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine Oleg Lugovskyy, Ukrinform writes.

According to him, the main buyers of illegally exported grain were the countries of Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The Russian side sends Ukrainian agricultural products harvested in the occupied territories to foreign markets, pretending that they are its own.

To implement these schemes, Russia uses the so-called "grain fleet", and a special "grain hub" has been created in open waters at the exit of the Kerch Strait, where grain is reloaded from Russian small bulk carriers to foreign dry cargo ships.

This system makes it possible to conceal the origin of products and complicates identification on the international market. After transshipment, Ukrainian grain actually loses its trace and is exported as Russian grain," Lugovsky pointed out.

This logistics chain involves 45 ships, two storage vessels and about 40 cabotage vessels, with 85 per cent of the vessels registered in Russian jurisdiction, allowing the Kremlin to partially circumvent or minimise the effects of international sanctions.

Illegal exports are not limited to agricultural products. According to Lugovsky, Russia is also actively exporting coal, coke, kaolin, iron ore, soda and steel from the temporarily occupied territories. Last year alone, more than 200,000 tonnes of minerals and metallurgical products were exported by sea.

The Foreign Intelligence Service stresses that such actions are not only a violation of international law, but also a direct economic crime, causing Ukraine billions of dollars in losses. In addition to financial damage, Ukraine loses control over its resources and world markets lose transparency of the origin of products.