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’s foreign minister and top prosecutor said on Thursday, after Kyiv requested Israel to seize the cargo.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Ruslan Kravchenko, said on the Telegram app that the vessel, Panormitis, left Israel’s territorial waters and departed into neutral waters following “a range of procedural measures taken by Ukraine”.
“On the basis of the materials provided by the Ukrainian side within the framework of international legal cooperation, the competent Israeli authorities have begun to process the request,” he said.
The Panama-flagged vessel’s manager was not immediately available for comment.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, writing on X, described it as a “welcome development”, saying that Ukraine will continue to track the vessel and warn against any operations with it.
“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.
The Jerusalem Post and other outlets earlier on Thursday cited a statement from Israel’s Grain Importers Association saying that the company importing the grain had been forced to turn away the vessel.
Zenziper, the company named in the reports as the importer, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Kyiv considers all grain produced in the four regions that Russia claimed as its own since invading Ukraine in 2022 as well as Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, to be stolen and has protested over its export by Russia to other countries.
Moscow has not commented on the legal status of grain harvested in regions that remain internationally recognised as Ukrainian.
Ukraine and Israel traded diplomatic barbs this week as Kyiv condemned what it said were purchases of grain produced in Ukrainian territory currently occupied by Russia.
Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein on Wednesday wrote on X that Kyiv had yet to provide any evidence the grain was stolen. Marmorstein did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday about the status of the cargo.
(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell and Anna Pruchnicka, Editing by Mark Potter and Tomasz Janowski)
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