The State Sea and River Transport Inspectorate (Ukrmorrichinspektsia) has detained the Kanton vessel (flag of Tuvalu) in Kherson, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelian wrote on his Facebook page.
Omelian said that the vessel was detained because of poor seaworthiness, but he added that the vessel earlier entered ports in the occupied Crimea.
"The vessel entered the Crimea after 25/07/14. It entered Kherson today. Ukrmorrichinspektsia detained the vessel because of poor seaworthiness - its lifeboat failed to start. There are a number of other reasons… Unfortunately, it happens that vessels that violate our laws by entering Crimean ports that are closed are all in poor technical condition. They are inspected and detained without exception!" wrote Omelian.
He also expressed surprise that coastguards allowed the vessel to enter territory controlled by Ukraine. "Is it so difficult to simply not open the border to it based on and within the scope of the current legislation? Endless meetings were apparently held, everyone agreed, and sanctions were put in place, but something prevents a decisive step from being taken..." the deputy minister said.
As reported earlier, Ukrmorrichinspektsia detained the Knebworth liquefied petroleum gas tanker on 2 February for violating the requirements of international conventions. Previously, this vessel had also repeatedly entered the Crimea to transport liquefied gas before entering the Ilyichevsk and Odessa ports many times without consequences.
