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On July 7th, one of the crew members of the Russian-flagged cargo ship Zhibek Zholy which was detained in Turkey, claimed that the vessel is going to depart from the Turkish port of Karasu.
The cargo ship will reportedly unload grain to a storage vessel and leave the parking lot so as not to lose money due to demurrage. Then, when a large vessel is loaded, it will move to the ports and will be unloaded.
The Russian-flagged Zhibek Zholy belongs to the Kazakh company KTZ Express Shipping.
In early July, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry claimed that Turkish authorities had detained the vessel at the request of the Ukrainian side. The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine believes that the cargo ship illegally exported Ukrainian grain from the port of Berdyansk in the Zaporozhie region. The port is under Russian control.
The Kremlin has rejected accusations of stealing Ukrainian grain. The investigation of the UN also could not confirm the statements of the Ukrainian side. Alexey Zaitsev, deputy head of the Department of Information and Press of the Russian Foreign Ministry claimed that the vessel undergoes standard procedures in Turkey, including sanitary control, according to the results of which the bulk carrier will either be allowed to enter the port or not, said. According to Bloomberg, the cargo ship has not docked and is waiting for Turkey to study the origin of grain and the course of the vessel.
On July 5, Reuters reported that Kiev has asked Turkey to launch an investigation into three more Russian-flagged vessels. According to the Ukrainian side, the vessels left Sevastopol in April and May. Kiev demanded Ankara to provide documents about the cargo on the vessels and their arrival at Turkish ports. According to Reuters, the authors of the letter dated June 13 indicate the names of the vessels, but the agency does not cite them.
