By Maytaal Angel
LONDON (Reuters) -Allegations that Russia is stealing grain from a wide variety of areas in Ukraine are very serious and must be investigated immediately, British farming minister Victoria Prentis said on Tuesday.
World food prices have soared to record levels since Russia invaded Ukraine, triggering protests across developing countries.
Black Sea ports in Ukraine, the world’s fourth-largest grains exporter, have been blocked since the invasion, with some 20 million tonnes of grain stuck in the country at present.
Prentis, speaking at an International Grains Council (IGC) conference in London, said she had heard allegations of grain theft by Russia first-hand from sources in the Kherson region in south Ukraine.
Russia has previously denied allegations of stealing wheat from Ukraine
The United Nations is trying to broker a deal to enable Ukraine’s grain to be shipped from Black Sea ports such as Odesa while Russia has said it wants Western sanctions lifted as part of a deal.
Ukraine and the West accuse Moscow of weaponising food supplies. Russia blames the situation on what it says are Ukrainian mines in Black Sea waters and on international sanctions against its own economy.
Ukraine last week said that Russia was shipping stolen grain to Turkey out of Crimea, which it annexed in 2014. It also accused Russia of sending its ally Syria 100,000 tonnes of stolen Ukrainian wheat.
(Reporting by Maytaal AngelEditing by David Goodman)
