Lebanon weighs Ukraine's claim that Syrian ship has stolen grain

Lebanese authorities said on Friday they were investigating a Ukrainian allegation that a Syrian ship under US sanctions that docked in the port of Tripoli in northern Lebanon was carrying Ukrainian grain stolen by Russia.

The Laodicea, a Syrian-flagged freighter owned by the state transport company, arrived in Lebanon on Wednesday with nearly 10 tonnes of wheat and barley. Shortly after, the Ukrainian Embassy alerted Lebanese authorities that it believed the grain had been stolen by Russia. Russia is a close ally of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and has intervened in that country's civil war to support him.

Lebanese customs officials inspect documents of the ship to assess whether the cargo is under sanctions or has been stolen, according to Raymond El Khoury, director general of the authority. But he said the Ukrainian Embassy had not sent any evidence to support his claims and if no evidence was found that the grain had been stolen, it would be unloaded. It was not clear where the grain was ultimately linked.

"We are still conducting our investigation," El Khoury said. "I can't play a pirate and arrest ships without evidence."

At a press conference on Friday afternoon, Ukraine's ambassador to Lebanon, Ihor Ostash, said the ship was on a list of 78 that Ukrainian law enforcement had proven to be involved in the illegal transport of stolen Ukrainian grain. A Ukrainian judge issued an order on Friday to seize the Laodicea along with the cargo carried on board, Ostash said.

The United States warned in May that Russia was trying to profit from its plunder of Ukrainian cereals, which represent a tenth of world wheat exports. Much of the stolen grain was trucked to Russian-controlled Crimean ports and then loaded onto Russian freighters, some of them under Western sanctions, according to Ukrainian officials. Ukraine has accused Russia of stealing up to 500,000 tons of wheat, worth $100 million, since its invasion in February.

The Russian Embassy in Lebanon told a local TV channel that the Ukrainian accusations were false and claimed the ship was not linked to the Russian government.

Laodicea has been under US sanctions since 2015, as part of a broad pressure effort. and isolating the Syrian government for its brutal actions during the civil war. The ship left the Turkish port of Izmir on July 7 and headed for the Black Sea, with stops in other Turkish ports, according to detailed navigation data collected by maritime website MarineTraffic.

The ship apparently turned off its satellite transmitter and after briefly disappearing from the map, the Laodicea reappeared on July 21, midway across the Black Sea, en route to the Turkish Bosphorus Strait.

Ukrainian authorities say the ship visited a port in Crimea and was loaded with stolen Ukrainian grain while its transmitter was off line, and traveled close to the Turkish coast past Cyprus before reaching Tripoli, Lebanon.

Ships carrying Ukrainian grain have used a number of tactics to mask their activities, including turning off their transponders, according to a former US undersecretary of state, James K. Glassman, a spokesman for the Initiative for the Study of Russian Piracy, which recently published a report investigating the theft of Ukrainian grain and steel by Russia. to avoid penalties. Russia and Ukraine grow different types of grain due to their climates, and when mixed, it is more difficult to tell them apart.

Mr. El Khoury said that since the Laodicea had stopped in Turkish ports before arriving in Lebanon...