Ukraine Slams Russia For Stealing Metal From Mariupol

A ship has entered the Ukrainian port of Mariupol for the first time since Russia completed its capture of the city to load metal and ship it east to Russia, TASS news agency reported, in a move that Kyiv decried as looting.

Photo Insert: Ukraine's largest steelmaker Metinvest on Friday said it was concerned that Russia may use several ships stranded in Mariupol to "steal and smuggle metallurgical products" belonging to the group.

A spokesperson for the port told TASS that the vessel would be loading 2,700 tons of metal before traveling 160 km (100 miles) east to the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on Monday. The spokesperson did not say where the metal being shipped had been produced.

Ukraine's Human Rights Ombudsman Lyudmyla Denisova said the shipment amounted to looting by Russia. "Looting in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine continues," she wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

"Following the theft of Ukrainian grain, the occupiers resorted to exporting metal products from Mariupol."

Ukraine's largest steelmaker Metinvest on Friday said it was concerned that Russia may use several ships stranded in Mariupol to "steal and smuggle metallurgical products" belonging to the group.

It accused Russia of piracy. Asked on Saturday whether the metal due to be shipped out belonged to Metinvest, a company spokesman said: "We said yesterday that our metal is in the port of Mariupol, yes."

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