Ukraine reportedly warns Israel of diplomatic crisis over ship with stolen grain bound for Haifa
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Kyiv has warned of diplomatic repercussions if Israel allows a vessel carrying grain stolen from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories to dock and unload its cargo, Axios reported on April 27, citing an undisclosed Ukrainian source.
Failure to turn the Panormitis bulk carrier away from the Haifa port will lead to a crisis in Ukraine-Israel relations, the source told Axios reporter Barak Ravid.
The Kyiv Independent's diplomatic source has confirmed the information.
Panama-flagged Panormitis reportedly entered the Haifa Bay on the morning of April 26 and is waiting to enter the port. Marine traffic monitoring services show the vessel idling near the Israeli coast.
The news comes after another vessel, the Russian bulk carrier Abinsk, docked in Haifa earlier in April with nearly 44,000 tons of stolen Ukrainian wheat, earning a rebuke from Kyiv.
An investigation by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz found that at least four shipments of stolen Ukrainian grain have already been unloaded in Israel this year.
Panormitis initially departed from the Port of Kavkaz in Russia's Krasnodar Krai, carrying over 6,200 tons of wheat and 19,000 tons of barley, journalist Kateryna Yaresko from the Myrotvorets Center's SeaKrime project reported on April 25.
The vessel was loaded with grain from occupied Ukrainian territories via transfers from other ships, Yaresko wrote.
Axios's source said that Ukraine reserves the "right to deploy a full suite of diplomatic and international legal responses" if Panoramitis is allowed to dock, noting that Israel "essentially shrugged off" Kyiv's demands regarding the previous vessel.
Russia has seized millions of tons of Ukrainian grain from occupied territories, exporting it to global markets by its shadow fleet vessels.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha previously said that Russia's "illegal export of stolen Ukrainian agricultural products is part of Russia's broader war effort" and "must not be allowed."
Ukrainian-Israeli relations during Russia's full-scale war have been complex, despite the two countries sharing a common adversary in Iran.
Israel has refrained from providing direct military aid to Kyiv, seeking to preserve a balance in its ties with Russia despite Moscow's support for Tehran.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has notably omitted Israel from his Middle East tour earlier this spring, which was aimed at deepening security cooperation with key regional players amid Iranian aerial strikes.
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The Kyiv Independent news desk
Polina Moroziuk
