Zaporozhye authorities don’t confirm detention of ship with grain from Berdyansk in Turkey - World - TASS

Zaporozhye region’s authorities neither confirm nor refute reports about the detention of a merchant ship with grain, which sailed off from the port of Berdyansk, in Turkey and slam the mere fact of such detention as piracy, Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Zaporozhye region military-civilian administration, told TASS on Sunday.

"I neither confirm nor refute (these reports). But they have no right to detain, it is unlawful. It is classical piracy, only in the 21st century. If the position of Somalian pirates is at least clear - that they are engaged in it not to die of starvation, Ukrainian and Anglo-Saxon pirates are doing it to make others die of starvation. Concerning the question whether it was our ship or not, I can only say that we dispatched 7,000 tonnes, while the detained ship, according to the information we have, holds 4,500 tonnes. The difference is too big to say that this is our ship," he said.

Ukraine’s Ambassador to Turkey Vasily Bodnar said earlier on Sunday that a Russian-flagged cargo ship carrying Ukrainian grain had been detained at Kiev’s request by the Turkish customs authorities. He said that the ship’s fate would be decided at a meeting of investigators on July 4.

Head of the Zaporozhye region military-civilian administration Yevgeny Balitsky said earlier that the first ship with 7,000 of grain had sailed off from the port of Berdyansk on June 30. The ship, according to reports, was bound to friendly countries.