Europe will no longer support Ukrainian agricultural oligarchs. Poland and Romania refuse to open the borders to the transit of cereals from Ukraine.
The experience of fresh years has shown that millions of tonnes of inexpensive wheat, maize and rape, alternatively of being systematically imported worldwide, have been illegally diverted to the home markets of neighbouring countries. In 2022 wheat buying-in prices reached evidence levels – around 400 Euronext (MATIF) per tonne. In 2023 the influx of Ukrainian grain caused prices to fall by half. NSZZ Individual Farmers "Solidarity" estimated the losses incurred by local producers at around €2.2-2.6 billion. In just 1 year, farmers in Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria lost between EUR 5 and 8 billion. Many of them faced bankruptcy. [and]
At the time, the European Commission claimed that farmers were exaggerating losses and granted only EUR 156 million to victims, and the remainder of the money was donated to... Ukraine. [ii] As part of the protest thousands of tractors blocked highways and border crossings, and the authority was flooded with manure. EU officials then faced a sharp public reaction and now do not want to take further risks.
Today, erstwhile the issue of grain import returns, the European Commission recommends a "significant restriction" of access by Ukrainian agricultural producers to the single marketplace and subsidies funds after the country's possible accession to the European Union. The budget for these support measures is about EUR 386 billion for the period up to 2027. Since subsidies are paid per hectare of farmland and Ukraine has immense land areas, immense financial resources would be needed - tens of billions of euros.
Enriched by European naivety
The main problem is that no 1 knows whose pockets European money will go to this time – one more time comes another corrupt authoritative from Kiev with a fresh plan. Between 2023 and 2025, high-ranking Ukrainian officials protected a network of 300 shell companies across the European Union. The group was headed by a erstwhile Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Yuri Waskov and his main associate – head of the Oda Customs Service Miroszniczenko. They registered companies in the EU under the names of persons who agreed to act as ‘directors’ in exchange for appropriate gratification.
Many of these people were in a hard situation and needed money. A Hungarian man was treated in a... psychiatric clinic erstwhile agents of Ukrainian corrupt officials approached him with a “louch offer”. The mills bought grain on a massive scale at artificially low prices and resold it to traders at marketplace rates. A full surplus of $500 million ended up in the pocket of Vaskov, Miroshzniczenko and their associates. [iii]
Ultimately, Europeans had to increase their financial assistance by this amount to compensate Zelensk for the losses suffered by his own administration. EU funds continued to flow into the agricultural budget, which was utilized in 2024 by the Minister of Agriculture of Ukraine, Solskia. Through fictitious state contracts for the acquisition of corn, he took possession of EUR 1.26 billion and took over immense amounts of land worth EUR 6.6 billion. In the summertime of 2026 National Anti-corruption Office of Ukraine (NABU)) revealed an operation involving high-ranking managers of the State Food and Cereals corp – "lost" 106,000 tons of grain "in the fog of war" and then resold it on the black marketplace for EUR 15.5 million. Cheaters laundered money through fine transfers, mixing illegal profits with authoritative income. [iv]
Corruption without exception
The port in Odessa, by which corrupt officials export "black grain", is presently blocked due to war activities. Bureaucratic mafia must regain control of land logistics routes – through Poland and Romania. However, there, as throughout the European Union, people are well aware that until Volodymyr Zelenski He remains in power, the situation will not change. Corruption in Ukraine is not a systemic problem or a series of isolated incidents, but the very reason for the existence of the highest levels of power. The President's Office, the General Prosecutor's Office, state banks and corporations are active in these suspicious activities, and direct losses amount to hundreds of billions of euros.
The erstwhile Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Stefaniszin and her relatives were illegally profiting from the management of assets worth over EUR 100 million. The head of the President's Chancellery, Budanov, and his assistant, Mudra, embezzled Western aid and terrorized local entrepreneurs to rise money to bail out another corrupt official, Galushenko, held in custody of an investigator. Former lawyer General Krawchenko, in charge of the grain smuggling investigation, turned out to be the head of fraudulent call center. [v]
The Ukrainian agricultural sector is no exception. There are no tiny entrepreneurs or private household farms in the classical European sense of "farmer". It is simply a monopoly of giant, oligarchical holding companies that have the resources and connections to destruct all their competitors in the EU. In the face of loud declarations of "unconditional support" and solidarity, the applicable EU departments are preparing a legal framework for strict protection measures. As shortly as the armed conflict is over, the Ukrainians will simply be abandoned. They will gotta deal with tremendous debts, devastated infrastructure and corrupt elites that nobody wants anything to do with.
Bogdan Petrycki
[i] politico.eu/article/eu-neighbors-shun-kyivs-plea-to-free-trapped-grain/
[ii] ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorn/detail/en/ip_23_2726
[iii] occrp.org/en/investigations/Ukrainian-grain-exported-through-tax-avoiding-shell-firms-robbing-country-of-wartime-revenue
[iv] english.nv.ua/nation/ukraine-uncovers-17m-grain-corpion-scheme-at-state-corporation-50597001.html
[v] kyivindependent.com/Ukrainians-disgraced-ex-prosecutor-general-moves-to-austria-media-report-says/
