Ukraine will ask the EU to impose sanctions against companies from Bangladesh for buying stolen Ukrainian grain

Ukraine plans to ask the European Union to impose sanctions on Bangladeshi companies that, according to its data, import wheat from the territories temporarily occupied by Russia.

This was stated by the Ukrainian Ambassador to India Oleksandr Polishchuk in a comment to Reuters.

According to the diplomat, the Ukrainian embassy has sent at least four official appeals to the Bangladeshi government demanding that it refuse to purchase more than 150,000 tons of grain, which was probably exported from the occupied regions and sent through the Russian port of Kavkaz. The appeals remained unanswered.

“This is a crime,” Polishchuk stressed. According to him, Russian companies are mixing stolen Ukrainian grain with Russian grain to hide its origin. Ukraine will pass on the results of its own investigation to its EU partners with a request to take measures.

Reuters also reports that the diplomatic cables list the names and registration numbers of ships that sailed to Bangladesh from the ports of Sevastopol, Kerch, Berdyansk and Kavkaz between November 2024 and June 2025.

The Bangladeshi and Russian foreign ministries declined to comment. A Bangladeshi food ministry official told the agency that grain imports from Russian-occupied territories were prohibited and the country did not buy stolen wheat.

Last year, a joint investigation by Bellingcat and Lloyd’s List into Russian grain theft from Ukraine’s TOT found that the grain was ending up in the hands of Yemeni Houthis.

Tags: Ukraine, Russia, wheat, Bangladesh, grain stolen