Russian oligarch Alexander Tkachov's company, Agrocomplex, has seized around 400,000 acres of farmland belonging to three Ukrainian agribusinesses in Ukraine's Russian-occupied territories, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Tkachov, an ally of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, is a former agriculture minister and governor of Russia's Krasnodar Krai.
The Ukrainian authorities are investigating the theft of farmland by Tkachov’s company, according to the newspaper.
“Russia is taking over the economy in occupied territories and using that control to help control the whole area,” Dmytro Skorniakov, CEO of Ukrainian agricultural company HarvEast Holding, said.
HarvEast has lost 100,000 acres in Russian-occupied parts of Donetsk Oblast, while Nibulon, another agribusiness firm, has lost 50,000 acres, and Agroton has accused Agrocomplex of stealing 250,000 acres.
As of Nov. 10, an estimated 2.8 million metric tons of grain and 1.2 million tons of oil seeds with a combined value of $1.87 billion had been destroyed or stolen due to Russia’s war against Ukraine, according to the Kyiv School of Economics.
Research using satellite imagery from NASA’s food security and agriculture program showed that Russia had collected almost 6 million tons of wheat from occupied territories, Bloomberg reported on Dec. 3.
Swiss Prosecutor General Stefan Blaettler said in July that selling looted raw materials could constitute a war crime.
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Monday, November 10
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Timur Mindich, a former business partner of President Volodymyr Zelensky, is the co-owner of Kvartal 95, a production company founded by the president. According to the Kyiv Independent sources in law enforcement, Mindich had fled prior to the searches.
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Major Andrii Kovalev, a spokesman for Ukraine's General Staff, told Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda that logistics to Pokrovsk still exist, and the troops, including wounded soldiers, are being rotated in and out.
The probe follows reports that President Volodymyr Zelensky's former business partner, Timur Mindich, was tipped off about the possible searches and was able to leave the country beforehand.
The additional funds raised will be distributed based on a public vote.
The nature of the mass reports' accusations, unrelated as they are to the channel's actual content, is a clear sign of a coordinated Russian operation, according to the project's deputy editor.
Later, the official Telegram channel of Krasnodar Krai confirmed the attack, claiming that four Ukrainian sea drones had been destroyed.
Three drones were spotted flying over the Doel Nuclear Power Plant in northern Belgium on the evening of Nov. 9
Monday, November 10
Ukraine would like to order 27 Patriot air defense systems from U.S. companies and is looking to borrow the crucial system from its European allies in the meantime, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Ukraine's military reportedly struck a Russian oil depot near the village of Gvardeyskoye in occupied Crimea late on Nov. 9, Russian Telegram media channel ASTRA reported.
Zelensky said Kyiv will propose that the 20th sanctions package target "Russian legal entities and individuals that are still profiting from energy resources."
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