The Security Service of Ukraine documented the criminal activity of persons involved in the illegal export of 650,000 tons of Ukrainian grain worth more than 200 million US dollars from the temporarily occupied territories of the south of our country.

The Ukrainian special service established the entire chain of those involved: starting from the traitors who signed the permits to export the grain and ending with all the crew members of 10 Russian ships on which the loot was transported.

Thus, the SBU has documented criminal activity and has already notified the following persons of suspicion:

• Yevgeny Balytsky - the head of the Russian occupation administration in the captured part of the Zaporizhzhia region;
• Aleksandr Saulenko - the self-proclaimed acting mayor of the city of Berdyansk;
• Volodymyr Stelmachenko - "director" of the Berdyansk sea trade port.

They were charged with three articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: collaborative activity, assistance to the aggressor state, violation of the laws and customs of war.

In addition, property (including four small aircraft located in the Kyiv region) and corporate rights belonging to Balytskyi and his family for a total amount of over UAH 149 million was seized.

At the same time, the Security Service of Ukraine has identified other participants in this illegal scheme, to whom it is also planned to announce suspicions.

The SBU established that the collaborator Balytsky issued an "order" based on which a temporary occupation administration was introduced in the occupied territories. As a result, the property of 7 agro-industrial complexes and grain terminals in the territory of the Zaporizhzhya region was illegally transferred to the pseudo-enterprise "State Grain Operator".

In addition, pseudo-mayor Saulenko, together with the "director" of the Berdyansk sea trade port, Stelmachenko, ensured the removal of grain from warehouses and its loading onto the ship "Zhibek Zholy" under the flag of the Russian Federation.

Operatives also documented the removal by the sea of ​​Ukrainian grain stolen from the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions through seaports and terminals located on the Crimean TOT.

Sea vessels under the flags of the Russian Federation and Syria were involved in the specified illegal activity by the Russian side: "Nadezhda", "Sormovsky-48", "Fedor", "Matros Koshka", "Matros Pozynych", "ZHIBEK ZHOLY", "St. Konstantin", "Mikhail Nenashev", "LAODICEA".

However, thanks to the prompt response of the SBU, the illegal shipment of stolen wheat was prevented. In particular, the Ukrainian court seized the specified vessels and grain products transported by them.

Also, the Republic of Turkey, the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Republic of Lebanon refused and refused to accept and unload the specified sea vessels.

The operatives of the Security Service identified 5 more foreign sea vessels that illegally export grain from the seaports of the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories and which are planned to be arrested.

Within the framework of international cooperation with the law enforcement agencies of the USA, the Republic of Turkey, the Republic of Lebanon and other countries, a joint investigation is underway to establish all the circumstances of the offense, including the arrest of sea vessels transporting stolen Ukrainian grain in their ports of destination.

Measures to expose and block the crime were carried out by a group of investigators as part of the Main Investigative Department of the SBU and the Investigative Department of the Main Directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, employees of the Main Department of Counterintelligence Support of Critical Infrastructure Objects and Combating Terrorist Financing of the SBU under the procedural guidance of the Prosecutor General's Office in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

The Security Service continues comprehensive measures to neutralize our country's food security threats.