The bulk carrier “Panormitis”, moving the Panamanian flag and carrying Ukrainian grain stolen by Russia, is awaiting permission to enter the Turkish port of Iskenderun after an unsuccessful attempt to unload in Israel.
This was reported by the Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel Yevhen Korniychuk to The Times of Israel. The bulk carrierʼs route can also be tracked on the VesselFinder service.
According to Turkish reports, the ship arrived at the port of Iskenderun on May 13. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office are working to convince Ankara not to accept this cargo.
“We hope they will do the right thing, like Israel did,” says Ambassador Yevhen Korniychuk.
What preceded
On April 26, the Israeli media outlet Haaretz reported that the “Panormitis” vessel, 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 vessels have unloaded stolen Ukrainian grain in Haifa since the beginning of 2026.
Because of this, the next day, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry summoned the Israeli ambassador. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha also emphasized 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. Already 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 “Centsiper” refused to unload the ship. It then departed from the coast of Israel and is now in international waters near Haifa.
After this incident, the EU reported that it was considering imposing sanctions against Israel for purchasing grain, and Ukraine was ready to make similar decisions.
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