Israeli company refuses to unload stolen Ukrainian grain for the first time

The Israeli grain importer "Tsenciper" refused to unload the PANORMITIS ship with stolen Ukrainian grain.

This is reported by the Israeli media outlet TheMarker.

The company said the vessel needs to find another point to unload. Therefore, the PANORMITIS continues to stand off the coast of Haifa until a decision is made on what to do with the cargo.

The ship is carrying about 19 000 tons of barley and 6 000 tons of wheat. The estimated value of the cargo is about $7 million.

Centsiper is one of the largest and oldest grain importers in Israel. The company supplies grain from Europe, the USA and South America, mainly for animal feed.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said the decision was a signal to all other ships, captains, operators, insurers, and governments not to buy stolen Ukrainian grain. The MFA continues to monitor the ship.

Diplomatic conflict between Ukraine and Israel over stolen grain

On April 26, the Israeli media outlet Haaretz reported that the PANORMITIS ship, carrying grain allegedly stolen from the occupied territories of Ukraine, had arrived in the bay of the Israeli city of Haifa and was awaiting permission to enter the port. In total, according to Haaretz, four ships have unloaded stolen Ukrainian grain in Haifa since the beginning of 2026.

Because of this, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry summoned the Israeli ambassador. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha also stressed that the Foreign Ministry had already appealed to Israel on April 15 regarding a similar ship that had delivered grain to Haifa, but there was no sufficient response to the incident. At that time, Israel informed Ukraine that it was too late to detain the Russian ship, as it had already left the port of Haifa.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar responded to Sybihaʼs post in X, saying that "diplomatic relations are not conducted on Twitter". He also claimed that Sybiha "did not file a request for legal assistance before turning to the media and social media".

On April 28, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry summoned Israeli Ambassador Michael Brodsky and handed him a note of protest over the continued arrival of grain to Israel, which Russia exports from the occupied territories of Ukraine. Already on April 29, Ukraine sent the Israeli side a package of documents for the arrest of the vessel.

In this regard, the EU is considering the option of imposing sanctions against Israel for purchasing grain, and Ukraine is ready to adopt similar decisions.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said that from January to April 2026, 25 ships of the Russian shadow grain fleet illegally left ports in the occupied territories of Ukraine for other countries almost 50 times.

Most of the trips were related to the illegal export of grain — the Russians exported more than 850 000 tons of products. More than 50% of the grain was exported from Sevastopol, another 13% — from Mariupol and Berdyansk.

For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.