Ship carrying stolen Ukrainian grain leaves Israel and enters neutral waters

The PANORMITIS vessel, which was transporting grain illegally exported from the occupied territory of Ukraine, departed from the coast of Israel and sailed into neutral waters.

This was reported by Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.

According to him, based on the materials transferred by Ukraine, the competent authorities of Israel began to fulfill the request, and the fact of the offense was recorded at the international level.

What preceded

On April 26, the Israeli media outlet Haaretz reported that the PANORMITIS ship, carrying grain allegedly stolen from the occupied territories of Ukraine, had arrived in the bay of the Israeli city of Haifa and was awaiting permission to enter the port. In total, according to Haaretz, four ships have unloaded stolen Ukrainian grain in Haifa since the beginning of 2026.

Because of this, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry summoned the Israeli ambassador. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha also stressed that the Foreign Ministry had already appealed to Israel on April 15 regarding a similar ship that had delivered grain to Haifa, but there was no sufficient response to the incident. At that time, Israel informed Ukraine that it was too late to detain the Russian ship, as it had already left the port of Haifa.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar responded to Sybihaʼs post in X, saying that "diplomatic relations are not conducted on Twitter". He also claimed that Sybiha "did not file a request for legal assistance before turning to the media and social media".

On April 28, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry summoned Israeli Ambassador Michael Brodsky and handed him a note of protest over the continued arrival of grain to Israel, which Russia exports from the occupied territories of Ukraine. On April 29, Ukraine sent the Israeli side a package of documents for the arrest of the vessel. On April 30, the Israeli grain importer "Tsentsiper" refused to unload the vessel PANORMITIS.

After this incident, the EU is considering imposing sanctions against Israel for purchasing grain, and Ukraine is ready to make similar decisions.

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