“Panormitis” ship carrying stolen Ukrainian grain enters Dardanelles Strait

Author:
Veronika Dovhaniuk
Date:

The “Panormitis” vessel with grain stolen from the occupied territory of Ukraine has already entered the Dardanelles Strait.

This was reported by the investigator of the SeaKrime project Kateryna Jaresko, in X.

According to her forecast, it is returning to the Russian Federation and wants to unload the Ukrainian grain stolen from Berdyansk in the Caucasus or in Novorossiysk.

Earlier, Israel and Turkey had already refused to accept the grain shipment.

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, stating that "diplomatic relations are not conducted on Twitter". He also claims 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. At that time, it departed from the coast of Israel and was in international waters near Haifa.

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

For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.