MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/. Ukraine’s authorities demonstratively refuse to discuss issues of safe passage of foreign ships from Ukrainian ports, Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, said on Tuesday.
"Ukraine’s representatives to the International Maritime Organization are refusing to discuss issues of ensuring safe passage of ships and are demonstratively evading dialogue. Kiev authorities continue to evade contacts with representatives from the countries and ship owning companies to ensure safe passage of foreign ships," he said.
According to Mizintsev, 76 foreign ships from 18 countries continue to be blocked at Ukrainian ports. The ships cannot take to the sea because of threats of shelling and high mine alerts in Ukraine’s inland and territorial waters.
He stressed that Russia is doing its best to ensure civil navigation in the Black, Azov and Mediterranean Seas. Russia’s military open a 80 nautical miles long and three miles wide maritime humanitarian corridor from 08:00am to 19:00 every day southwest from Ukraine’s territorial sea.
Apart from that, he warned the international community about mine hazards in the Black Sea due to drifting Ukrainian mines. He once again called on ship owners to exert pressure on official Kiev to force it to take urgent measures to deblock foreign ships and ensure their safe passage from Ukrainian ports.