Russian Barges Shipping 'Stolen' Ukraine Grain Collide in Black Sea

This illustrative image shows a ferry at Port Crimea near Kerch after crossing the Kerch strait from Port Caucasus (Kavkaz), Krasnodar region in southern Russia, on October 9, 2022. Storms in the area on November 27, 2023, have damaged at least three Russian vessels.

Russian vessels allegedly involved in the shipping of stolen Ukrainian grain have collided in the Black Sea region during a huge storm, it has been reported.

Social media channel Shot said that on Sunday night a “massive maritime accident” had taken place in the Kerch Strait after the ship Matros Shevchenko collided with the vessel Matros Pozynich as it tried to sail into the open sea.

The two vessels also collided with another anchored vessel Kavkaz-5, although the circumstances of the collision are unclear. Shot said that the vessels had sustained minor damage but “fuel spills and water pollution were avoided.”

Newsweek has contacted the Russian foreign ministry for comment.

On May 27, satellite imagery provided by Maxar Technologies showed that the Matros Pozynich had arrived in Syria with grain allegedly stolen from Ukrainian farms.

In October, the pro-Ukrainian Telegram channel Crimean Wind reported that the Matros Shevchenko had left the port city of Sevastopol with stolen Ukrainian grain amid accusations that Russia uses Crimea as a “gray zone” for transporting agricultural products that it has illegally seized.

International human rights law firm, Global Rights Compliance, released a report this month that said Russia had pre-planned “to pillage and weaponize over $1billion per year of Ukrainian grain” to help fund its war effort.

It said that the first mass extraction of grain had been reported in March 2022 in which Russian forces seized agricultural facilities and took control of transport networks to facilitate the “fast passage” of Ukrainian grain into Russia.

Yousuf Syed Khan, senior lawyer at Global Rights Compliance, said in an emailed statement to Newsweek that Russia had adopted a “highly systematized weaponization of Ukraine’s grain” that “has involved extremely intricate pre-planning.”

“Russia is doing this to fund its unlawful war effort, to elicit sanctions relief on the world stage,” Khan said, in what was a bid “to represent itself as the legitimate authority of Ukrainian territory.”

Amid the storms that have battered the Black Sea region, the Kremlin-linked Telegram channel Mash reported that at least eight vessels had been damaged as hurricane-force winds and 30-foot waves pounded Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014.

Videos on Telegram showed waves battering the coastline and trees being downed in the storms that have killed one person, injured several others and left at least half a million without electricity.

Update 11/27/23, 8:45 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with further information.

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