Maritime officials have confirmed that two countries have delisted cargo vessels off their registries in recent weeks after the ships were involved in transporting grains from Crimea to Syria.
What happened?
The country Crimea has been under Western sanctions since it was annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014 and has been frozen out of many export markets. On the other hand Syria, which also has been targeted by sanctions, as an ideal trading partner for Crimea, given that the latter is open to receiving goods such as olive oil in exchange for wheat.
Such trade is dependent on continued access to a limited pool of ships that are willing to transport cargoes despite the sanctioned restrictions.
Violation of Western sanctions
It was reported in June, that Crimea has stepped up grain exports to Syria over the past year in an arrangement that gives the Black Sea peninsula an outlet for its surplus crops and provides Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad with a reliable source of wheat.
Ukraine says shipments from Crimea violate Western sanctions and has been complained to the United Nations’ London-based shipping agency the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and asked member states to de-list any vessels involved.
Ocean-going ships are required to register with a national authority, known as a flag state, which sets out regulatory obligations that every vessel must abide by.
Ship-tracking and port data showed that ageing cargo ships have been used to transport cargoes from the Crimean peninsula to Syria, including the Crystal Galaxy and Snow White, which have been actively involved in the trade.
Vessel delisted
Tanzania confirmed that the Crystal Galaxy had been de-registered, adding in a June 12 statement that a number of vessels were continuing to use the Tanzanian flag fraudulently.
Sierra Leone’s maritime administration confirmed separately that both the Crystal Galaxy and the Snow White had subsequently been cancelled from its flag registry. The Snow White’s owner, Eldora Shipping Company, and the Crystal Galaxy’s, Crystal Galaxy Shipping Co, did not respond to requests for comment.
Natalia Galibarenko, Ukraine’s permanent representative to the IMO, has confirmed that many flag states have duly fulfilled their obligations and delisted ships involved in such trade.
She further added, “The Ukrainian side will continue to monitor the situation closely to ensure compliance by all shipowners, ship operators and ship masters. The ships involved in such activity were switching off tracking transponders when approaching waters close to Crimean ports. As a result, the safety and security of navigation in the area have been severely compromised”.
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Source: Reuters
