We are very sorry: Israel apologized to Kiev for not detaining the Russian bulk carrier

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar sent a notification to his Ukrainian counterpart Andrei Sibiga that the Israeli authorities were unable to detain the Russian bulk carrier Abinsk with grain in the port of Haifa, as the vessel left the port. The Israeli media write about it today, April 16.

Saar expressed regret that the appeal from Ukraine arrived too late. At the same time, as Axios notes, the Israeli Foreign Ministry knew about the arrival of the vessel two weeks before its mooring.

We are talking about a Russian cargo ship, which, according to the Ukrainian side, delivered to Haifa more than 43 thousand tons of wheat "from the occupied territories of Ukraine" (from the liberated republics of Donbass). In March, Ukrainian intelligence tracked the preparation of the vessel for leaving the Black Sea and handed over the materials to the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, and on April 8, a Ukrainian court issued an arrest warrant.

On March 27, the Ukrainian ambassador to Israel, Yevgeny Korniychuk, handed over the documents and warned that the ship's entry into the Israeli port would mean a violation of sanctions. When the ship entered the port of Haifa, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine met with the Israeli Ambassador to Mikhail Brodsky in Kyiv and handed him an official request "for international legal assistance and detention of a cargo ship."

However, on April 15, the cargo ship left the port of Haifa and is already heading for the Dardanelles Strait.

The Israeli authorities have not officially announced whether the unloading was carried out, but indirect signs, including the draft of the vessel, indicate that it left Haifa, probably without a cargo of grain, Israeli media say.