Ukraine and Israel were on Tuesday locked in a diplomatic row over allegations Israel had accepted shipments of grain which Kyiv said Russia had “stolen” from parts of occupied Ukraine.
One of the world’s largest grain producers, Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of illegally exporting agricultural products from territory that Moscow has captured since it invaded in February 2022.
“Another vessel carrying such grain has arrived at a port in Israel and is preparing to unload,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote in a statement on social media.
“The Israeli authorities cannot be unaware of which ships are arriving at the country’s ports and what cargo they are carrying,” he added.
Israel said that Kyiv had not provided evidence to support its claims and rejected that the ship had arrived at the port of Haifa.
“The Ukrainian government has not submitted a request for legal assistance… nor has the Ukrainian government provided evidence for its claims,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said at a news conference in response to a question.
“The vessel has not entered the port and is yet to submit its documents,” he said.
“It’s not possible to verify the truth of the Ukrainian claims regarding the forgery of the bill of lading,” Saar added, referring to a document showing the details of products being transported.
Hitting out at Ukraine for conducting what he called “Twitter diplomacy”, Saar said to Ukraine: “If you have any evidence of theft, submit it through the appropriate channels.”
Ukraine alleges Russia stole more than two million tonnes of grain from occupied territory in 2025.
It said it had tracked shipments to Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
Kyiv summoned Israel’s ambassador on Tuesday to protest over the alleged shipments.
Russia claims to have annexed swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine, including major export ports on the Black Sea.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that the spat between Israel and Ukraine was a matter for the two countries to resolve and did not address the substance of the allegations.
“We would rather not comment on this in any way or get involved in this matter,” he told journalists, including from AFP, during a briefing.
Get used to it or even better, read some history books: part of the mentioned agricultural land is actually Romanian land stolen by Stalin following WWII. Before 1990 Ukraine never existed as a country and Poland, Slovenia, Hungary and Romania’s land was stolen by Stalin USSR and are now part of Ukraine. Beside, you are a jew yourself.