Ukraine has summoned the Israeli ambassador to the Foreign Ministry - a protest note over the purchase of Russian wheat that Kyiv identifies as Ukrainian wheat stolen from occupied territories. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha put it bluntly: "Russia's illegitimate trade in stolen Ukrainian wheat cannot threaten good Ukrainian-Israeli relations" - a sentence that actually says the exact opposite.

Ships carrying wheat taken from occupied Ukrainian regions arrived at the port of Haifa, and Israel has so far not reacted properly to previous Ukrainian warnings. This is part of a broader picture: Israel maintains working ties with Russia despite pressure from Western allies, and Russian wheat - regardless of provenance - finds buyers.

Ukraine sees this as the outright theft of a national resource. Russia sells the wheat at market prices and no one officially asks where it came from. "Stolen resource" is a legal and moral category. "Wheat at a competitive price" is realpolitik. Israel, pressured by its own supply needs and its own geopolitical balances, has so far chosen pragmatism.

Ukraine doesn't have many instruments to pressure Israel - but the protest itself is a message to others as well. If stolen resources circulate freely on the global market, then any future sanctions structure is only as strong as the paper it's written on.