Latvia's government intends to discuss introducing a complete ban on the export of Russian grain through its territory, Reuters reported, citing senior officials. In Lithuania, officials said the use of ports for such supplies is "no longer acceptable," without specifying concrete measures.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas said that "the export of Russian grain using Lithuanian infrastructure contradicts our values." He stressed that restrictions would not affect grain transit between mainland Russia and the Kaliningrad region.
Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs claims that Ukrainian services have information about preparations for large grain shipments illegally removed from occupied territories via the Baltic states. He instructed Latvian agencies, together with Kyiv, to develop a mechanism to block such consignments. Lithuania also suspects that some grain declared as Russian actually originates from occupied territories of Ukraine. On September 3, Lithuania's veterinary control service took grain samples at the port of Klaipeda and sent them for analysis to France.
Russia began more actively redirecting grain to the Baltic Sea after Ukrainian strikes disrupted routes through the Black and Azov seas. In the previous export season, 90% of Russia's total sea grain exports (46.3 million tons) went through those seas, while only 1 million tons passed through Russian Baltic ports. Since the start of the new season, requests for transportation through Baltic ports have reached 5 million tons. According to estimates by Arkady Zlochevsky, head of the Russian Grain Union, exports via the Baltic states could reach 5–6 million tons this season, and up to 10 million tons if Estonian ports are also used.
According to SovEcon, Russia's total wheat exports in August amounted to only 1.9 million tons — the lowest in 16 years.