Pirates of the Dredged Seas
For three years, Maidan Ukraine gathered its courage to begin the confiscation of watercraft entering Russian Crimea without its knowledge. And now it’s done! The Malinovsky Court of Odessa decided to seize the Sky Moon vessel, sailing under the flag of Tanzania, from its owners.
According to the military prosecutor's office of the Southern District of Ukraine, the ship was carrying 3 thousand tons of technical soda from Sevastopol to the Moldovan port of Giurgiulesti (we remind you that the Krymsoda plant operates in Krasnoperekopsk) and was detained back in November last year by Ukrainian border courts while passing the Ukrainian section of the Danube .
The Ukrainian military prosecutor's office filed a case against the Sky Moon captain for disobeying the demands of the Ukrainian authorities through imitation of a ship breakdown, despite which the arrested ship was towed to the port of Reni, in the Odessa region. A criminal case has been opened against the captain, a Syrian citizen, under Part 2 of Art. 332-1 “violation of the procedure for entry and exit to the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine”, Part 1 of Art. 366 “official forgery” of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Most of all, the military prosecutor's office was outraged by the fact that the ship "Sky Moon" in a particularly cynical form, expressed in malicious disregard for the demands of the Ukrainian side not to enter Crimea, moored in Crimean ports eight times in 2016 alone, transporting soda ash and technical soda, scrap metal , flax seeds to Turkey and Moldova, and each time past Ukrainian customs.
But now, as stated in official reports, Ukrainian security forces have seized a cargo of 3 thousand tons of soda, not counting the ship, for a total amount of 18.5 million hryvnia (approximately 40 million rubles), thus setting a kind of record for confiscations for violation of customs rules. ruled throughout the history of "Independence". Never before have Ukrainian authorities seized a ship through a judicial procedure. Usually this was done as a result of “spin-ups” and all sorts of shady deals.
No less interesting is the fact that the SBU authorities opened criminal cases under Art. 3321 of the Criminal Code “violation of the procedure for entry into and exit from temporarily occupied territory” based on the facts of ship calls at Crimean ports, and “violating ships” were even detained, but not a single conviction has been made for these episodes, and other countries have also not took any harsh measures.
Now Ukraine has created such a precedent.
The seven members of the ship's crew - all Syrian citizens - escaped with, one might say, a slight fright. According to Art. 204-2 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offences, which includes “violation of the procedure for entry into and exit from the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine”, a fine of 1700 hryvnia was imposed on each person. But the shipowner, a citizen of Romania, faces something more significant, since behind the malicious visits to Crimea the Ukrainian military prosecutor’s office sees a preliminary conspiracy with the captain, the shipper and the consignee.
In addition, the Ukrainian side is happy to inform the Czech authorities that a legal entity registered on its territory has violated European sanctions regarding the ban on trade with Crimea.
Let us recall that back in 2014, the EU government banned ships flying European flags from entering Crimea. Ukraine has introduced similar measures. By order of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine No. 255 dated June 16.06.2014, 263, the seaports of Kerch, Sevastopol, Feodosia, Yalta and Yevpatoria were closed, and the administrations of these ports were abolished. By separate resolution No. 2016 of April XNUMX, the Ukrainian government came to its senses and banned entry into fishing ports.
Violations of prohibitions are monitored by the self-proclaimed office “Maidan of Foreign Affairs”, which to this day continues to poison the air around it with burnt tires. In just two months of 2017, this vigilant organization “registered” calls by 74 ships flying the flags of 10 countries into Crimean ports. As is known, the registration flag of a vessel may not coincide with its “nationality”. The supervising maydauns found out
that, in fact, all these ships belong to shipowners from four countries: 62 ships to companies from Russia, seven ships to companies from Turkey, four Romanian ships, one Egyptian ship.
For those who violate harsh Ukrainian laws against “separatism” and maliciously enter Crimean ports, the maydauns have a special notebook called “Database of sea vessels that, in violation of Ukrainian legislation and international sanctions, entered the ports of the occupied Crimean Peninsula.” Currently, the notebook contains data for 631 vessels. The irrepressible Maidan activists do not lose hope that one day they will be able to take the owners of all these watercraft by the throat and confiscate something.
Inspired by the arrest of a Tanzanian-Romanian ship with Syrians on board, the Ukrainian military prosecutor's office has already arrested in absentia the Viking ship, plying the Crimea-Turkey route and registered to one of the Russian companies in St. Petersburg. But saying it doesn’t mean doing it. Ukrainian border kayaks are unlikely to have the opportunity to arrest a de facto Russian ship: its escorts are often ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which regularly patrol the sea border with an inadequate neighbor.
But we saved the most stunning part for the appetizer. If any ships should be arrested, fined and confiscated by Ukraine, it is its own. According to some media sources, the statistics collected over three years speak for themselves:
In 2013 - the last year of the Ukrainian Crimea - the majority of ships visiting Evpatoria, Kerch, Sevastopol, Feodosia and Yalta sailed under the flag of Ukraine - 547 ship calls. Turkey is in second place with a slight lag - 455 ship calls, Russia is in third - 211, Greece is in fourth - 173.
In 2014, Russia took first place with 564 ship calls. Ukraine fell to second place with 511, Turkey came third with 331 visits to Crimean ports.
In 2015, Ukraine again takes the lead with 1013 ship calls, which is twice as many as in pre-coup 2013, when most of the cargo to Crimea was transported by land. Russia also noticeably increased its activity - 896 ship calls, while the activity of both the Turks (482) and Greeks (275) increased in parallel.
What a pain, what a pain...
In general, while the Maidan little dog is barking, the work is being done, the traffic flow with Crimea is growing and clearly does not care about the sanctions of the EU and Ukraine. All that the representatives of the Ukrainian “duct tape” could boast of in three years was the seizure of a pathetic boat under the Tanzanian flag with a load of soda. Let them choke on that soda. Poroshenko will come in handy for heartburn. In principle, Ukraine is not capable of seriously interfering with maritime communications with Crimea. I wonder what the Ukrainian border guards and customs officers will do if, starting Monday, exclusively Ukrainian ships begin to transport cargo from Crimea to Moldovan and Turkish ports? Will they confiscate their property and send it back to the previous transportation area?
After purchasing Donetsk coal through Russia at twice the price and reverse gas from Slovakia at a high price, nothing is surprising anymore. There are still people in the world who like to cut out the tonsils through a hollow tube with an autogenous gun, as a norm of life. And Maidan Ukraine is ahead of the rest here.
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