The court sentenced the head of the occupied Berdyansk sea trade port Volodymyr Stelmachenko to 10 years in prison with confiscation of property. He helped loot Ukrainian grain. The man is hiding in the temporarily occupied part of Zaporizhzhia, the beginning of his sentence will be counted from the day of his detention.
This was reported by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on August 9.
Under the leadership of Stelmachenko, since June 2022, the Russians have shipped almost 150 000 tons of wheat to Russia from the captured sea port, for a total amount of more than $30 million.
Volodymyr Stelmachenko is the former head of the operational response department of the Berdyansk port, who after the occupation of the city went to cooperate with the Russians. For this, Gauleiter Oleksandr Saulenko submitted his candidacy for the position of so-called "head" of the captured port. After his appointment, Stelmachenko began to carry out the instructions of the Russians to transfer all the property of the Ukrainian port "to the balance" of the local occupation administration. His main task was to help export Ukrainian grain to Russia. For this, the sea vessels "Sormovsky-48" and ZHIBEK ZHOLY were involved. On the raids, they were accompanied by warships of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation.
- Since the beginning of the invasion, Russia has exported almost 4 million tons of grain from Ukraine.