The russian ship was loaded with 27 thousand tons of grain in the temporarily occupied Crimea and tried to sell the grain to Egypt, and following the refusal of Egypt changed the route to Lebanon and Syria, as was informed by the Economichna Pravda newspaper.
The ship Matros Pozynych was loaded with 27 thousand tons of grain in the temporarily occupied Crimea and was moving toward the Egyptian port Alexandria with this grain on board. Matros Pozynych is a ship of the under-sanctioned “Unified shipbuilding corporation”.
On 23 April, the ship passed through Bosporus and moved to the Kerch Strait, and stayed on the anchorage of the port Caucuses without any freight operations until 27 April. On 27 April, the ship turned off the АІС (automatic identification system that has to be turned on on all vessels according to international maritime law).
On 28 April, Matros Pozynych was noticed in the temporarily occupied Sevastopol near the grain terminal of the stevedoring company Avlita registered in russian registers as Aval. On 30 April, the ship moved toward the port of Alexandria (Egypt).
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine confirmed information about 27 thousand tons of grain shipped. The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Oleh Nikolenko stressed that Ukrainian diplomats prevented russia’s shipment of this grain to Alexandria.
“According to our information, now the russian side is directing the ship with the grain stolen in the southern region of Ukraine toward Lebanon and Syria. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already addressed Lebanese and Syrian bodies requesting to arrest the stolen cargo if the russian cargo ship enters their ports,” Nikolenko informed. “We have this situation under special control.”
According to the latest information from MarineTraffic, the ship was docked in the port Caucuses and on 4 May moved toward Beirut.