Russian occupiers plan to export stolen Ukrainian coal through the port of occupied Mariupol

The Russian occupying authorities plan to export 88 more railcars of stolen Ukrainian coal through the port of Mariupol, as reported by the Mariupol City Council with reference to the Center for Occupation Studies.

Illustrative photo. Source: telegram channel of the Mariupol City Council

“The occupiers continue to export stolen coal through Mariupol. The arrival of 88 railroad cars of coal to the port of Mariupol has been recorded,” the message says.

According to experts, the Mariupol seaport is currently an element of military logistics for the invaders and a tool for robbing the occupied territories: Russians are exporting coal, grain, metal and other cargo.

As the city council emphasised, the Russian occupying authorities intended to put 25 hydrotechnical structures into operation in the port this year, including 18 berths to increase the turnover of stolen goods and 15 buildings after repair and restoration work.

Last year, in the temporarily occupied Mariupol, Russians doubled the port’s cargo turnover compared to 2023. As of May 2024, over 1,700 tons of agricultural products had been illegally exported from the occupied territories since the full-scale invasion began. This is in addition to the billions of dollars worth of Ukrainian grain and other agricultural products that have been destroyed or outright stolen by Russian authorities. 

On the evening of March 1, 2025, a Russian ballistic missile hit port infrastructure and a Panama-flagged civilian vessel in Odesa.

On January 16, 2024, the United Kingdom reported that it had developed a database to track and prevent grain theft from Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions. It announced a plan to deliver the database to Ukraine in the coming weeks.

Previously, ZMINA reported that the occupational authority in temporarily occupied Crimea confessed plans to confiscate another 720 objects.