The Russian ship carrying grain entered Russian waters
THE Ukraine will summon the ambassador of Turkey to seek clarification, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry announced today, a day after a Russian-flagged cargo ship suspected of carrying stolen Ukrainian grain departed a Turkish port.
The fact that the ship was allowed to leave is “unacceptable”, the Ukrainian ministry said, after data from the ship monitoring service Refinitiv showed that the ship departed late yesterday, Wednesday, from the northwestern Turkish port of Karasos.
“We express our regret that the Russian ship Zhibek Zholy, which was full of stolen Ukrainian grain, was allowed to depart from the port of Karas despite the evidence of wrongdoing presented to the Turkish authorities”the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote on Twitter Oleg Nikolenko.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s ambassador to Turkey said that the Turkish authorities had seized the ship. Reuters had previously reported that Ukraine had asked Turkey to seize the ship.
But yesterday, Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed as false information that the ship had been seized by Turkey.
Citing the ship’s crew, the Russian news agency TASS reported today that the Zhibek Zholy plans to offload grain to “a storage vessel” after departing from a paddock near a Turkish port.
The ship’s destination appears to be the Russian port of Caucasus, where it is expected to arrive tomorrow, Friday.
A senior Turkish official, who asked not to be named, told AFP that the ship “entered Russian territorial waters, but without approaching any port.”
Turkey’s DHA news agency reported that the truck turned off its transponder, the device that allows ships to be located at sea.
Since the beginning of this case, the Turkish authorities have remained silent.
RES-EMP
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