A farmer holds grain in his barn in the Ukrainian village of Ptyche in eastern Donetsk region, June 12, 2022.
AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky
A joint investigation by the AP and PBS “Frontline” used satellite imagery and open source video and photos, as well as ship-tracking data to document a massive operation in which Russia has been stealing Ukrainian grain and selling it to countries in the Middle East.
Ukrainian officials in June accused Russia of the practice, but Russia denied it, and countries including Lebanon and Syria said they were skeptical. AP's news verification reporter Beatrice Dupuy and global investigative reporter Michael Biesecker set out to find the truth.
Biesecker used satellite images and an online service that logs ships’ radio transponder signals, tracking the movements of a fleet of cargo vessels docking at grain terminals in Russian-occupied Crimea and then sailing to ports in Turkey, Syria and Lebanon. He then accessed business records to determine both the ownership of the ships and the businesses that bought the grain.
Dupuy gathered videos posted to social media showing long lines of trucks hauling grain from areas of Ukraine invaded this year to Crimean ports Russia illegally annexed in 2014. She also found a Turkish hobbyist who had made photos and videos of the massive ships entering a port in Istanbul, then unloading the stolen grain.
The cargo ship Laodicea is docked at a port in Feodosia, Crimea, in a July 11, 2022 satellite image by Planet Labs. Two weeks later, when it arrived at the Lebanese port city Tripoli, the ship manifest falsely claimed the barley and wheat flour in its hold was loaded at a small Russian port on the other side of the Black Sea.
Planet Labs via AP
The cargo ship Laodicea is docked at a seaport in Tripoli, Lebanon, in a photo from video provided July 29, 2022. Lebanese officials rejected protests from Ukraine that the ship was carrying 10,000 metric tons of grain stolen by Russia. However, satellite imagery reviewed by the AP shows the ship had been loaded two weeks earlier in Crimea, a part of Ukraine occupied by Russia.
AP image from video
During a media trip organized by the Russian Ministry of Defense, a Russian soldier stands guard atop a military truck as farmers harvest grain at the Voznesenka-Agro farm near Melitopol, southern Ukraine, July 14, 2022.
AP Photo
During a media trip organized by the Russian Ministry of Defense, Russian soldiers stand guard at a grain elevator in Melitopol, southern Ukraine, Thursday, July 14, 2022. An investigation by The Associated Press shows a Russian-run smuggling operation has been transporting grain from occupied regions of Ukraine to ports in Crimea, where it is shipped to buyers in the Middle East.
AP Photo
Biesecker also worked with Beirut-based global investigative reporter Sarah El Deeb, who obtained the manifest of a grain ship docked in Lebanon. That document turned out to be a key piece of evidence, linking the shipping company to grain transported by rail from a Russian-occupied city. The journalists also found that the manifest listed a Russian port of origin, but satellite imagery showed the ship had actually been loaded in Crimea.
Biesecker compiled a spreadsheet with more than 50 voyages carried out by three dozen ships, using their listed cargo capacity and converting the figures: a total more than 1.1 million metric tons of grain with a market value of more than $530 million.
Video journalist Serginho Roosblad and news verification reporter Arijeta Lajka produced a video that laid out the visual evidence, featuring slick motion graphics and illustrations by “Frontline,” narrated by investigative reporter Juliet Linderman.
Other news organizations have reported on the grain theft, but AP and “Frontline” were first to detail the smuggling operation, from silos in occupied Ukraine all the way to grocery store shelves in Turkey and Syria. The jnvestigation was also the first to name names, tracing the owners of the companies that were shipping and receiving the grain, and their ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Readers responded enthusiastically and Biesecker appeared on the BBC to discuss the team’s work. Dr. Annie Kemp, of the International Journal of Maritime Crime & Security, wrote, “THANK YOU, thank you, thank you, for the most incredible research and coherent reporting and bringing this almost unbelievable, incredulous story to light. I hope (United Nations Secretary-General) Guterres has a copy!”