Russia may have supplied stolen Ukrainian grain to Houthis in Yemen — Bellingcat and Lloyd’s List

The aggressor country russia has at least twice in the past few months supplied, allegedly, stolen Ukrainian grain to Ansar Allah militants operating in Yemen.

This is according to an investigation conducted by Bellingcat and Lloyd’s List.

The vessel in question is called Zafar. It loaded grain in the port of occupied Sevastopol in early October and arrived in Salef, Yemen in mid-November. A few days before arriving in Salef, the vessel docked in Djibouti.

All vessels delivering cargo to ports controlled by the Houthis are required to call at Djibouti for inspection by the United Nations Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM).

UNVIM representatives did not respond to a request for comment on whether the vessel was inspected while in Djibouti.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also did not respond to a similar request.

At the same time, satellite images and data on the vessel's movement indicate that in early November the Zafar was docked in Djibouti.

It is noted that even if the Zafar had been allowed to be transported by UNVIM, the vessel would not have been able to do so simply because the cargo's true port of origin was occupied Sevastopol.

The vessel made a similar delivery of grain earlier this year.

In both cases, it was unclear where exactly the grain delivered to Yemen was harvested. However, Ukrainian farmers have repeatedly accused russia of stealing the harvest harvested in the occupied part of Ukraine.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, from January to October 2024, the russians exported 180,000 tons of stolen grain through the port of occupied Mariupol in the Donetsk Region.

Recall that in September of this year, the American publication The Wall Street Journal published an article detailing to whom and how much russia sold grain harvested in the occupied territories.

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