Only business: how foreign ships enter both Ukrainian and Russian ports

_{The charterers involved in the Grain Initiative continue to load vessels in the ports of the terrorist country.}

_{The monitoring group of the Institute of Black Sea Strategic Studies and the editors of BlackSeaNews established the fact of participation in the Grain Initiative  by vessels that previously entered Russian ports.}

_{During the daily monitoring of the movement of vessels in the Black Sea, analysts checked the history of vessel calls of the container ship Professor B. Currently, the vessel is waiting for passage to the port of Reni at an anchorage near the Sulynsk mouth of the Danube. The ship runs within the “grain” corridor. Despite this, Professor B flies to other ports and countries, not neglecting to call at the ports of the aggressor country.}

_{So, in March of this year, the ship was unloaded in the Russian port “Kavkaz”. It is interesting that, according to AIS data, on April 5, immediately after leaving the port of the Russian Federation, the container ship went to Izmail, Ukraine.}

_{Later it turned out that this was not an isolated case. In total, it was possible to identify at least 9 vessels that trade with Ukraine and Russia at the same time. It is interesting that, according to Stark Shipping, of all the ships, the shippers of only three of them are known.}

_{Analysts noted that this practice poses a threat to Ukrainian port infrastructure.}

_{“From the point of view of the security of the Ukrainian infrastructure and countering possible acts of sabotage, special decisions should be made regarding the impossibility of maritime business entities to charter for the transportation of cargo to/from Ukrainian ports ships that make flights to the ports of the Russian Federation. Or simply prohibit such ships from entering the ports of Ukraine. For an analogy, let’s cite an example from the recent 11th package of EU sanctions, which prohibit ships of any country that transported Russian oil in violation of EU sanctions from entering the ports of EU member states,” the monitoring group emphasized.}

_{Such precedents have ignited a lively debate among market players. Yes, some representatives of Ukrainian business propose to introduce restrictions against unscrupulous charterers. Among the proposals is to introduce a rule according to which the last 10 ports where the ship called should not include Russian ports. However, at present, trade with a terrorist country remains only on the conscience of charterers.}

_{It is certain that until Ukrainian business has unanimity regarding the Russian Federation, it will be difficult for us to force our partners to boycott Russia on the world market.}

_{Reference: Professor B is a container ship with a deadweight of 14,120 tons. The length of the vessel reaches 152 meters, the width is 23 meters. The container ship was built in 1984. Professor B flies under the Comoros flag.}