General situation

Dias Marine Consultants Co Ltd, our correspondents in Ukraine, has provided us with the following information:

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Further to our previous reports we are glad to repeat that all Ukrainian ports operate in the usual manner. The ships are serviced and cargo handling operations are carried out with no any delays connected with political situation in the country.

Sometimes, we are asked by the shipowners whether their ships may freely proceed to a Ukrainian port after calling at one of the Crimean ports?

In principle, in the course of war for Crimea no restrictions/ prohibitions to be imposed on ships to enter Ukrainian ports after calling at one of the Crimean ports were legislatively introduced. However, we think it rather advisable for the shipowners to refrain from such voyage plans due to possible difficulties.

The matter is that on April 15, 2014, The Supreme Council (Verkhovna Rada) of Ukraine enacted Law of Ukraine No.107-VII “On Assurance of Rights and Freedom of Citizens and Legal Regime on Temporarily Occupied Territory of Ukraine”. This Law provides for special order of entry/departure of Ukrainian and foreign citizens, including masters and other crew members of foreign ships, to/from Crimea. It’s not an easy task to go through all formalities to comply with this order and even if one endeavors to satisfy thoroughly all requirements of the law there is always a possibility that “something will go wrong”.

That is why we would strongly recommend to the shipowners to keep their ships away from Crimean ports now, at least in case if a further call at a Ukrainian port is planned. This subject will be developed in more detail in a special article of a maritime lawyer Andrey Yanitskiy.

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