KIEV, August 19. /TASS/. The Ukrainian authorities will keep the Mekhanik Pogodin vessel in its port city of Kherson for three years, the so-called first deputy Ukrainian president’s envoy to Crimea, Izet Gdanov, said on Saturday.
"On August 10, the asset of this company, namely the Mekhanik Pogodin vessel, was blocked for three years in the port of Kherson," he said in a comment to Ukraine’s Public Radio.
The operating company, V.F. Tanker, earlier said that the ship’s crew had denied entry to a port inspection, because it lacked lawful reasons. Gdanov described the crew’s actions as illegal and claimed that they would "bear responsibility in line with the current legislation."
"It is each country’s right and responsibility to control the technical and environmental condition of vessels, if it receives complaints. And there were complaints. This is our responsibility as a state to handle them," he said.
A member of the State Duma (lower house of the Russian parliament) committee on defense and security, Frants Klintsevich, described the move as "playing with fire."
"The Ukrainian authorities are obviously playing with fire by illegally holding Russia’s Mekhanik Pogodin vessel in the port of Kherson for more than a week already," he told reporters on Saturday. "Russia has hundreds of variants of a possible response to those provocations, and our patience is about to run out."
"Nevertheless, we hope that common sense would prevail and the vessel will be allowed to leave the port in the coming days, Otherwise, Russia’s response will be as tough as possible," the lawmaker said.
Mekhanik Pogodin’s detention
On August 10, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) blocked the Russian vessel at the port of Kherson, saying that its owner had been blacklisted by Kiev.
The vessel’s captain said the tanker was shipping a cargo of diesel fuel from Turkmenistan to Ukraine under a freightage contract in the interests of Canada’s Oil Marine Shipping and Chartering.
The vessel’s operating company V.F.Tanker said on Friday that the crew members had prevented an illegal entry attempt by the Ukrainian authorities.
The company pointed out in an earlier statement that "the port authorities and customs service have been notified that the vessel’s detention was groundless and illegal and could entail liability for damages," as they were violating the International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to the Arrest of Sea-going Ships.