China secretly moored a cargo ship in occupied Crimea

A Chinese cargo ship has violated international sanctions by entering the port of occupied Sevastopol. This is the first time that a foreign ship has entered a Ukrainian port occupied by Russia without Kyiv's permission.

This was reported by the British edition of the Financial Times.

The Chinese shipping company, which belongs to Guangxi Changhai Shipping, has repeatedly entered the port of Sevastopol in occupied Crimea. This is despite the fact that Western countries banned calls to Crimean ports back in 2014.

The Panamanian-flagged container ship Heng Yang 9 has been spotted in Crimea at least three times in recent months. The last such incident occurred in September. The vessel left Istanbul on September 2 and arrived in Novorossiysk on September 6. After that, according to the transponder, it was supposed to be in the port of Kavkaz, but satellite images did not show it there. It was only on September 14 that Heng Yang 9 was spotted in Sevastopol.

The investigation showed that the vessel was trying to conceal its movements by transmitting false information about its location. Eventually, on September 17, it returned to Istanbul with containers that appeared to be identical to those loaded in Crimea.

Ukrainian authorities confirmed that the Heng Yang 9 called at Sevastopol on June 19-22 and again requested permission to load 101 containers on August 15. In this regard, Presidential Commissioner for Sanctions Policy Vladyslav Vlasiuk said that Ukraine considers such actions unacceptable.

He noted that the Ukrainian Embassy in China had already appealed to the Chinese Foreign Ministry on this issue. According to Vlasyuk, China responded that it recommends that its citizens and companies avoid contact with the occupied territories of Ukraine, but that each case will be considered separately.

It is worth noting that these measures coincided with the launch of a new railway line to Crimea, which, according to the Russian side, allows for the delivery of containers from Russia to the peninsula. According to Ukrainian officials, Russia also uses this line to transport goods from the occupied parts of Donetsk and Kherson regions. In addition, in August, the Russian authorities opened the ports of Berdiansk and Mariupol to foreign vessels.

Vlasyuk warned that vessels entering the occupied ports risk being included in sanctions lists.

Катерина Глушко