A shipment of grain that Ukraine says was stolen by Russia will not be unloaded in Israel, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Thursday, after several days of back-and-forth between Kyiv and Jerusalem over the fate of the controversial cargo vessel.

According to the official, the decision to not offload the ship was made by Israeli importer Zenziper, not by government officials. Kyiv praised the move as a “welcome development.”

The Panama-flagged Panormitis bulk cargo ship arrived in the Haifa bay this week and was waiting for permission to berth in the northern Israeli port.

However, after the Haaretz daily reported that it was carrying grain from occupied Ukrainian territory, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha summoned Israel’s ambassador to Kyiv and demanded answers over Jerusalem’s “lack of appropriate response to Ukraine’s legitimate request” regarding the fate of the ship. Haaretz also reported that four shipments of grain from occupied Ukraine had already been unloaded in Israel this year.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told Sybiha that Ukraine had provided no evidence to support allegations that the grain was “stolen,” and accused him of conducting diplomacy through the media.

Israel, he added, “is a state that abides by the rule of law,” and any legal action must be based on substantiated evidence submitted through official channels.

Israeli company Zenziper refused to accept around 25,000 tons of grain from the Russian vessel PANORMITIS The reason was a statement by Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry that the cargo could be linked to stolen Ukrainian grain from occupied territories. Advertisement if(typeof rgb_remove_toi_dfp_banner != "function" || !rgb_remove_toi_dfp_banner("#Article_Incontent1")){ window.tude = window.tude || { cmd: [] }; tude.cmd.push(function() { if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("rgbmedia-app") > -1){ tude.setDeviceType("mobile"); }........

© The Times of Israel