Russia denies sales of Ukrainian grain in Syria

MOSCOW/NUR-SULTAN/WASHINGTON, Jun 17 (PRIME) -- Reports that Russia is exporting a large batch of grain from Ukraine to Syria are a fake, presidential envoy to Syria Alexander Lavrentyev said on Friday.

Reuters reported earlier citing the Ukrainian embassy in Lebanon that Russia has taken about 100,000 tonnes of grain from Ukraine since the start of conflict and sold it in Syria.

"This is another fake, unconfirmed and ungrounded information. The key reserves are in the Nikolayev and Odessa regions, Russian ships have no access to these ports, because they are controlled by Ukraine," Lavrentyev said.

There are no warehouses in Mariupol, he added.

Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov said that the exemptions from sanctions to export Russian grain and fertilizers, that some sanctions initiators are emphasizing, are illusory, because foreign banks, insurers and traders reject cooperation with Russia. He said that Russia is not to blame for the issues with global food supplies.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told PRIME that Russia and Belarus are interested in selling their fertilizers abroad, but there are U.S., E.U. and Canada's restrictions that do not allow the countries to continue the sales.

End