{"id":397146,"date":"2026-04-17T14:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T14:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/397146\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T14:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T14:52:09","slug":"the-blogs-ukraines-grain-is-ukraines-israel-can-fix-it-lesia-dubenko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/397146\/","title":{"rendered":"The Blogs: Ukraine’s Grain is Ukraine’s, Israel Can Fix It | Lesia Dubenko"},"content":{"rendered":"

These past days have been difficult for Ukrainians and Israelis who seek stronger<\/a> cooperation between the two countries.\n<\/p>\n

Following reports by a Ukrainian journalist Kateryna Yaresko about the Russian vessel ABINSK, \u2013 allegedly carrying grain from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, loaded at the anchorage of Russia\u2019s Kavkaz port, \u2013 docking at the Port of Haifa, social media on both sides quickly erupted. Largely with unflattering accusations.\n<\/p>\n

This time, however, there\u2019s not much I can do to mitigate the reaction. For Ukraine, as I\u2019ve noted before, anything related to wheat or bread is deeply sensitive. The Soviet regime attempted to starve us multiple times, and that historical trauma still shapes public perception today.\n<\/p>\n

Not to mention that the grain is simply stolen by Russia, which attacked us and occupied our land.\n<\/p>\n

So when Ukraine\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed Thursday that the cargo had been allowed to unload\u2014something also corroborated by my sources at the Ukrainian Embassy in Israel\u2014despite Ukraine\u2019s appeal, several questions arise.\n<\/p>\n

First, why was the vessel allowed to be not just docked but unloaded as well? Second, are the reports by Axios journalist Barak Ravid accurate\u2014that Israel\u2019s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar informed his Ukrainian counterpart in a text that the vessel could not be detained because it had already departed? Third, what exactly was the Ukrainian request\u2014to detain the ship, to seize the cargo, or both?\n<\/p>\n

I cannot quickly establish the precise chronology or all the details, including who exactly purchased the grain and what its final destination is. What I can say, however, is that this story is causing real and, in many ways, unnecessary damage to Ukraine\u2013Israel relations\u2014particularly at a time when Ukraine broadly views developments in the Iran conflict favorably and remains open to cooperation across multiple fronts, including the military front.\n<\/p>\n

For that reason, I\u2019m sharing the following translated statement on the subject from Ukraine\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs:\n<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian side considers the vessel \u201cABINSK\u201d as one that may be involved in the activities of the \u201cshadow fleet\u201d, which the aggressor state uses to illegally export, transport and sell stolen Ukrainian grain from the temporarily occupied territories and, ultimately, finance the war against Ukraine.\n<\/p>\n

Based on the materials of the Prosecutor General\u2019s Office of Ukraine, including the decision of the Ukrainian court on the arrest of the vessel and cargo within the framework of the relevant criminal proceedings, the Ukrainian side immediately sent a request for international legal assistance to the State of Israel.\n<\/p>\n

The MFA of Ukraine expresses its hope for fruitful and constructive interaction between the competent authorities of Ukraine and the State of Israel, due consideration of the request and application of the relevant legal mechanisms within the framework of Israeli jurisdiction.\n<\/p>\n

The MFA of Ukraine and the Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Israel are in constant contact with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel and the competent Israeli authorities in order to ensure appropriate steps.\n<\/p>\n

The MFA of Ukraine expects that the Israeli side will make a balanced and lawful decision and satisfy the relevant request of the Ukrainian side, in particular, arrest the specified grain batch aiming to prevent similar situations in the future.<\/p>\n

I fully agree with this position\u2014and hope the situation can still be resolved constructively.\n<\/p>\n

It really is in Israel\u2019s, and Ukraine\u2019s, interest to do that as we share the same enemies at the end of the day.\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tLesia Dubenko is a Kyiv-born journalist and analyst, previously featured in the Financial Times, Politico Europe, Washington Times, New Eastern Europe, and Kyiv Post, with a degree in European Affairs (Lund University). Her work focuses on the Russo-Ukraine war, global politics, propaganda and more.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"These past days have been difficult for Ukrainians and Israelis who seek stronger cooperation between the two countries.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,175969,46,155681,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-397146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-invasion-of-ukraine","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-israel-at-war","12":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}