Vessel that illegally checked in annexed Crimea's ports runs aground off Taman coast

The Ukrainian Ministry for Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons says a Mongolia-flagged cargo ship SUROV (VELES before August 2018), which headed from a port in Turkey to the Russian port of Kavkaz has run aground in the Black Sea in the area of Zhelezniy Rog Cape (the village of Volna) off the Taman Peninsula coast.

"According to AIS (Automatic Identification System), the latest information about the SUROV vessel was recorded two weeks ago. The AIS was disabled on the ship in violation of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974. However, thanks to this very system, it is possible not only to respond in time to the accidents with vessels and provide assistance to victims, but also to monitor navigation violations and illegal border crossing," the ministry said in a statement on December 26.

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Switching off the AIS is due to the illegal entry of SUROV into the officially shut-down ports of the Ukrainian Crimea, a peninsula that has been unlawfully annexed by Russia, according to the report.

"The reason for this is foreign companies involved in maritime transportation to closed ports willing to avoid liability on the part of Ukrainian legislation and not to be included in the list of companies violating international legal sanctions," the agency added.

Ukraine officially ceased operations of all ports on the Russian-annexed peninsula in July 2014. Thus, the Crimea ports are closed to international cargoes.