Five ships loaded with "tens of thousands of tons" of grain have vanished from a port in Ukraine, and reports indicate that the vessels and their haul were stolen by Russians.

The five cargo ships were allegedly stolen in the port city of Berdyansk in southeastern Ukraine. The ships were towed away into the Sea of Azov by Russian tugboats, the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Information Policy's communications arm said on Monday, citing the region's governor and eyewitnesses.

"According to the residents of Berdyansk, there were 5 ships being loaded there. Some of them were fully loaded — we can see from the customs documents — some were partially loaded. A few days ago, these ships disappeared from the port of Berdyansk. People say they were driven away. Russian tugs," Oleksandr Starukh, governor of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, said on Monday.

"There are tens of thousands of tons of grain loaded" on the ships, Starukh noted.

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Considering the prices of various grains on the commodities markets, a haul of that size is likely to be worth many millions of dollars. Wheat, for example, shot up to a record price of $12.94 per bushel on March 8. It is up in price by 70% over the last month, according to futures contracts with the Chicago Board of Trade.

Ukraine is the world's second-largest grain shipper and has 15 merchant seaports along the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.

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Russian forces took control of the Sea of Azov and closed shipping in and out of it at the start of the war last month. Hundreds of merchant ships have been stranded in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov as a result.