Russian Nazi army of criminals threatens farmers of the Kherson region to "cut the heads off" - Crimea.Realities

Where do cheap Kherson vegetables come from in Crimea?

Russian looters prevent price-gouging at the expense of vegetables stolen from Ukraine. This is described in the investigation of the project "Crimea.Realities".

In the Russian-occupied Crimea, agricultural products from the Kherson region are being sold at a reduced price, trying to avoid a price increase after Russia's full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. The fake local government, which is controlled by Moscow, claims that such food supplies have become possible as part of building "economic ties" with the Kherson oblast, a region that has been occupied by Russian troops for the second month and where regular fighting continues. Kherson authorities and farmers claim that the Russian army is looting their enterprises under the threat of retaliation.

It became known in early April about the supply of products from the Kherson region to Crimea. Moscow-controlled so-called head of the region Sergei Aksyonov and acting Crimean Agriculture Minister Alime Zaredinova claim that the "established stable supply" of Kherson products to the peninsula is the result of "economic cooperation" with the Kherson region captured by the Russian military.

Ukrainian authorities deny cooperation with Crimea and say Russian forces that have seized the Kherson region are looting local vegetable stores, threatening farmers and exporting grain from the region.

 

Hundreds of tons of borscht vegetables

 

Crimean and Russian media also claim "economic ties" between Crimea and Kherson Oblast. According to them, recently, prices for agricultural products that were up in Crimea after the Russian military invasion of Ukraine were set lower.

"Products from Kherson and Zaporizhia regions are sold at the Privoz market in Simferopol. There are special places for this. The prices are lower than in the Crimea," said the fake acting Minister of Industrial Policy of Crimea, Olena Elekchyan.

According to her, a total of almost 300 tons of agricultural products from the southern regions of mainland Ukraine were sold in Crimea.

In April, the Crimean people were promised more than 700 agricultural fairs with prices lower than market prices.

Products from the Kherson region are sold near the main entrance to the Central Market of Yalta. This was announced by the so-called head of the city administration, Yanina Pavlenko.

"We met the first batch of agricultural products from the liberated Kherson region (that is how Russian authorities call the occupation of the Ukrainian regions - ed.). A truck with a "borscht set" arrived in Yalta and immediately gathered the queue - the quality is excellent, the prices for some products are even lower than recommended by the Ministry of Industrial Policy of Crimea. Beets, cabbage, potatoes, carrots - 47 rubles/ kg, radish - 50, celery - 70 ", - said Pavlenko.

Pavlenko claims that he is working with the Ministry of Industrial Policy to "increase supplies" and organize permanent fairs with Kherson products, which can be pre-located near the Yalta bus station.

 

Russian Occupants Continue Committing Crimes

 

Trade in products from the southern regions of Ukraine in the annexed Crimea is not coordinated with their legitimate government, says First Deputy Chairman of the Kherson Regional Council Yuriy Sobolevsky. According to him, vegetables and agricultural machinery are being illegally exported by the Russian army from the Kherson region during its military occupation.

"The looting continues in fairly large quantities. There are many statements from those who have had something taken away. I also do not rule out the possibility that some farmers could go to Crimea to find a new market. We still have to check out whether such facts occur voluntarily or under pressure. But mostly these are mass illegal actions - theft, looting," said Yuri Sobolevsky.

The All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council (VAR) states that farmers in the Kherson region face threats and violence from the Russian military.

"In the Kherson region, the occupiers are appropriating the property of farms, taking products out of warehouses, forcing workers to work. Those who refuse are threatened with physical violence," the public union declared.

One of the victims in the VAR is called agrarian Albert Cherepakha, who owns two agricultural enterprises in the Kherson region and cultivates 20,000 hectares of land. He claims that his economic units in Genichesk were captured by armed orcs from Russia.

"Groups of armed Chechens, who call themselves Kadyrovites, entered the territory of my economic units in the Genichesk district on April 11-12. We have bases in the villages of Chongar, Chervone, Pavlivka (Kherson region - ed.). The armed men stated that all the company's property now belongs to them. The heads of the divisions were warned that in case of property losses they would be beheaded. The invaders instructed the workers to sow and prepare an application for the necessary materials. To do this, they began to export and sell products stored in warehouses, "- the Agrarian Council quoted the words of Albert Cherepakha.

According to "Ostrov", the leader of the fake DNR, Pushylin, said that the republic was establishing "trade and economic" relations with the territories of Ukraine occupied by the Moscow.

"This work is already underway, the exchange of products in the test mode is already taking place, and products are going in those directions from the territory of the DNR, and products are also being delivered from there," said the puppet ruler.

"Certainly, vegetables, as well as watermelons from Kherson will appear in the DNR,"  the traitor Pushilin have some big expectations for that. Fat chance.

 

Grain from Kherson region is delivered to Crimea

 

Serhiy Danilov, an expert at the Center for Middle East Studies, says that the Russian military is demanding 70% of the future harvest from farmers in the Kherson region. In his opinion, thus, Russian forces in the occupied territories of Ukraine "introduce slavery."

In addition, according to the expert, Russian forces are massively delivering grain from the Kherson region to Russian-annexed Crimea.

Ukraine's Human Rights ombudsman Lyudmila Denisova also states that the Russian army exerts pressure on Kherson farmers, as well as continues the stealing of grain from the region. According to her, Russian forces "devastated the elevator" in Novooleksiyivka and took all the grain to Crimea.

"A train with "grain" written on the carriages was also spotted. He was leaving the peninsula via the Kerch Bridge," said the ombudsman.

Lyudmila Denisova called the actions of Russian forces in the Kherson region a violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, as well as a war crime defined by the Charter of the International Military Tribunal and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. She appealed to the UN Commission for Investigation Human Rights Violations during the Russian military invasion of Ukraine to take into account the crimes and human rights violations in Ukraine by the Russian army.

 

IC UAC according to Crimea.Realities, a regional news outlet of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service