The Russian-flagged cargo ship “Zhibek Zholy” is anchored on the Black Sea coast, Turkey, on July 5th. (Ozan Kose / AFP / Getty Images)
The release of a Russian ship allegedly carrying stolen Ukrainian grain from Turkish waters is “unacceptable,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.
Turkey ignored a request to arrest the ship and the cargo and the ship was released on July 6, according to a ministry statement on Thursday.
He expressed “a deep disappointment and a call to the Turkish side with an urgent request to conduct an investigation … and to give a full response to the requests of the relevant Ukrainian authorities.”
The Russian merchant ship Zhibek Zholy had transported the grain from the occupied port of Berdiansk to the Turkish port of Karasu.
“In connection with the unacceptable situation, the Turkish ambassador to Kyiv was invited to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” the ministry added.
CNN has contacted the Turkish government for comment.
Russia’s TASS news agency said on Thursday that the Zhibek Zholy, “which is anchored in Turkey, plans to leave due to downtime and send grain to a storage vessel.”
“It is planned to go to the accumulated ship (storage) and tranship,” TASS said, citing one of the ship’s crew members. “Then when the big ship is loaded, it goes to the ports and unloads.”
Thursday’s shipment monitoring data shows the Zhibek Zholy’s transponder is no longer active at its recent anchor outside Karasu.
Satellite images show that Russian ships often unload their cargoes on other ships in the Black Sea.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Turkey Vasyl Bodnar earlier told CNN that Zhibek Zholy was anchored near Karasu, as “he was in fact detained by Turkish customs authorities and not allowed to enter the port.”
“We are now awaiting the decision of the relevant Turkish authorities on the actions of the Ukrainian law enforcement forces,” he added.
Some background: For months, Ukraine and allied countries have been trying to mitigate a growing food crisis caused by Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports for months, with Moscow accusing it of using food as a weapon of war.
On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said up to 60 million tonnes of grain could be trapped in the country in the autumn if it continued to face blocked exports.
The UN has said that the blockade of Ukrainian ports by Russia has already raised world food prices and threatens to cause a catastrophic food shortage in some parts of the world.
Russia has repeatedly denied that it is blocking ports or stealing grain.