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TEL AVIV, April 30 (Reuters) – A vessel carrying grain that Ukraine says was stolen from areas occupied by Russia will not unload in Israel, Ukraine said on Thursday, after Kyiv requested Israel \u200cto seize the cargo.<\/p>\n
Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Ruslan Kravchenko, said on the Telegram app that the vessel, Panormitis, \u200cleft Israel’s territorial waters and departed into neutral waters following “a range of procedural measures taken by Ukraine”.<\/p>\n
“On the basis of the materials provided \u200bby the Ukrainian side within the framework of international legal cooperation, the competent Israeli authorities have begun to process the request,” he said.<\/p>\n
Israel’s foreign ministry said, however, that Ukraine’s request for legal assistance, submitted late on Tuesday, “contained significant factual gaps and did not include any supporting evidence”.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the ministry said, it was informed that the vessel that was \u200csupposed to enter the port next week \u2060decided to depart from Israel’s territorial waters.<\/p>\n
The Panama-flagged vessel’s manager was not immediately available for comment.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, writing on Telegram, said Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha had presented \u2060a report calling for “a more systematic” campaign against vessels carrying grain from occupied areas of the country.<\/p>\n
“We will systematically act against the shadow grain fleet, in the same way we act against the shadow oil fleet,” he wrote.<\/p>\n
SIGNAL TO OTHER VESSELS<\/p>\n
Sybiha, writing \u200bon \u200bX earlier on Thursday, said the vessel would not be \u200bunloading in Israel, describing it as a “welcome development” \u200cwhich “demonstrates that Ukraine’s legal and diplomatic actions have been effective”.<\/p>\n
Sybiha added that Ukraine will continue to track the vessel and warn against any operations with it.<\/p>\n
“This is also a clear signal to all other vessels, captains, operators, insurers, and governments: do not buy stolen Ukrainian grain. Do not become part of this crime,” Sybiha said.<\/p>\n
The Jerusalem Post and other outlets earlier on Thursday cited a statement from Israel’s Grain Importers Association saying that the company importing the \u200cgrain had been forced to turn away the vessel.<\/p>\n
Zenziper, the \u200bcompany named in the reports as the importer, did not immediately respond \u200bto an emailed request for comment.<\/p>\n
Kyiv considers all \u200bgrain produced in the four regions that Russia claimed as its own since invading Ukraine \u200cin 2022 as well as Crimea, annexed by \u200bRussia in 2014, to be \u200bstolen and has protested over its export by Russia to other countries.<\/p>\n
Moscow has not commented on the legal status of grain harvested in regions that remain internationally recognised as Ukrainian.<\/p>\n
Ukraine and Israel traded diplomatic barbs \u200bthis week as Kyiv condemned what \u200cit said were purchases of grain produced in Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia. Israel said Kyiv \u200bhad not produced evidence for its allegations.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell and Anna Pruchnicka, Editing by Mark \u200bPotter, Tomasz Janowski, Emelia Sithole-Matarise, Ron Popeski and Deepa Babington)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n