MOSCOW, April 18. /TASS/. Ukraine’s authorities keep on blocking 76 foreign ships from 18 countries at the country’s ports, Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, said on Monday.
"Seventy-six foreign ships from 18 countries continue to be blocked at Ukrainian ports," he said, adding that ships cannot take to the sea because of threats of shelling and high mine alerts in Ukraine’s inland and territorial waters.
According to Mizintsev, who heads the Russian Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine, Ukraine’s authorities continue to evade contacts with the representatives of the states and ship-owning companies to ensure safe passage of foreign ships. Ukraine’s representatives to the International Maritime Organization are refusing to discuss these issues and are demonstratively evade dialogue.
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. Messages in English and Russian are broadcast daily every 15 minutes on VHF radio on 14 and 16 international channels to convey detailed information on the modus operandi of the maritime humanitarian corridor.
Apart from that, he again 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 unblock foreign ships and ensure their safe passage from Ukrainian ports.