Sibiga confirms that the Russian ship with alleged grain stolen from Ukraine will not dock in Israel

The Ukrainian Government confirmed this Thursday that the Russian ship ‘Panoramitis’, which is transporting alleged grain stolen from the eastern territories of the country controlled by Russia and was scheduled to dock in an Israeli port, will finally not do so, a day after kyiv formally requested that action be taken.

“The ‘Panoramitis’ ship, which is illegally transporting grain from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, will not unload in Israel,” applauded the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andri Sibiga, who this week clashed with his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Saar, over this matter.

“This shows that Ukraine’s legal and diplomatic actions have been effective,” said Sibiga, whom Saar criticized for having addressed this issue with greater emphasis through the media and social networks, instead of through official channels.

Sibiga has reported that they are tracking the ship, which was originally scheduled to dock in the port of the city of Haifa, in northern Israel, and has warned other state and commercial actors against doing business with it. “Do not become part of this crime,” said the Foreign Minister.

For Sibiga, this step taken by Israel “is a clear signal to all other ships, captains, operators, insurers and governments” that they should not buy “stolen Ukrainian grain,” as he wrote on his social networks.

In the last week, the Ukrainian authorities have focused on this issue of the alleged grain stolen by Russia during the invasion. In addition to Israel, ships with this type of cargo usually dock in ports in Egypt, Algeria and Türkiye, according to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.

According to kyiv, since the beginning of Russia’s invasion in February 2022, more than 1.7 million tons of agricultural products with a total value of more than 20 billion hryvnias (about 387 million euros) have been exported from the “temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.”