For the first time, Russian diplomacy acknowledged that Turkish checks were in progress on a cargo ship flying the Russian flag on Wednesday July 6. the Zhibek Zholy “is currently in the roadstead of the port of Karasu”on the Black Sea, said a spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alexei Zaitsev. “Standard procedures are in progress, including a health check”he added during a press briefing. “At the end of these, the Turkish authorities will authorize or refuse entry into the port, there is no question of detaining or stopping the cargo.”
Ukraine, which accuses Russia of stealing its wheat crops, says the Zhibek Zholy, left Thursday from the Ukrainian port of Berdyansk – a city in the Zaporizhia region under Russian occupation –, loaded with 7,000 tonnes of grain obtained illegally. The next day, the Ukrainian embassy in Ankara asked Turkey to stop the Russian ship.
Despite Ukrainian pressure, Turkey, a member of NATO, remains silent about its intentions. Turkey is considered an ally of Ukraine to which it provides combat drones, but it is careful to maintain a neutral position towards Russia, on which it depends for its gas supplies in particular.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office, meanwhile, has asked Turkish authorities to check three Russian-flagged ships that may be carrying grain from occupied Ukrainian territories, Reuters reports. (in English). the Mikhail Nenashev, the Matros Pozynich and the Matros Koshka would have traveled in April and May from the Sevastopol terminal in annexed Crimea, according to the letter dated June 13.
Between February and May, at least 10 boats had exported cereals (mostly wheat, sometimes barley or corn) via the port of Sevastopol in annexed Crimea, according to a count by the Ukrainian investigative project SeaKrime (in Ukrainian) and the Revealers of France Televisions. Several experts, quoted by CNN, believe that it could be grain looted in areas recently invaded by Russian forces in southern Ukraine. The Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture estimates that Moscow has already illegally exported about 400,000 tons of Ukrainian grain.