The Maltese-flagged ship Ruby carrying a cargo of ammonium nitrate from Russia will not be allowed to enter the port of Klaipėda for repairs, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė says.
“The cargo will not be allowed to enter the port,” she said on Thursday during the government hour in the parliament.
The vessel carrying around 20,000 tons of ammonium nitrate from Russia is requesting permission to enter the port of Klaipėda to unload its cargo and carry out repairs.
Ignė Rotautaitė-Pukenė, the port authority’s spokeswoman, told BNS earlier on Thursday that the port had not yet decided whether to admit the ship.
According to Defence Minister Laurynas Kasčiūnas, similar situations often occur when Russian ships request to be allowed into European ports for repairs.
“There are many such situations and not only here. I have visited Denmark many times, and they also see the routes of very, very weak, rusty and outdated Russian ships when they pass through certain Danish straits,” the minister told the MPs.
“There is a certain challenge here, there are certain rules of international law which obviously also have to be assessed according to the situation,” he added.
The Ruby picked up the cargo of ammonium nitrate on August 22 from Russia’s northern port of Kandalaksha and docked at the industrial port of Tromso on Tuesday before noon after seeking refuge from a storm, Norwegian publication The Barents Observer reported.
The vessel carrying the potentially explosive material was reportedly headed to Las Palmas in the Atlantic but docked in Norway after receiving approval from the military.
Yet Tromso police said in a statement on Tuesday evening that it was “not desirable” for the ship to undergo repairs “close to the city of Tromso”.
The tanker reportedly sustained damage to its propeller, hull and rudder.
According to the ship tracking website Marine Traffic, the vessel is currently in the Norwegian Sea, near the town of Andenes in the north of the country.
Further reading
No evidence of provocation
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis says there is no evidence that the ship requesting permission to enter the port of Klaipėda for repairs could be a provocation.
“No data has been provided to confirm that this is a deliberate malicious act against the interests of Lithuania’s national security,” he told a press conference on Thursday.
“However, when we are dealing with Russia or other international actors that are unfriendly to us, we always keep this possibility in mind. In other words, we have to be better prepared, more prepared, more cautious than when dealing with another state,” he said.
To be unloaded elsewhere
The Klaipėda port’s CEO says that Ruby will unload its explosive cargo at another port and then the Lithuanian port will decide whether to let it in for repairs.
“We have found a port that agrees to receive and unload the cargo,” Algis Latakas told reporters in Klaipėda on Thursday. “It will be then decided whether this ship can come to Klaipeda for repairs.”
He says there is no reason not to allow the unloaded ship to enter for repairs since the Maltese-flagged vessel belongs to a UAE company and is not linked to Russia.
“As a port authority, we really see no reason why an empty ship with a flag and owners we accept should not be allowed to come to Klaipėda and be repaired,” Latakas said. “The ship is not under the Russian flag. If it was under the Russian flag, nobody would consider allowing it to enter Klaipėda. The cargo is a separate story.”
Latakas did not mention the specific port that would receive the cargo, but assured that it is close to where it stopped in northern Norway.
According to Latakas, the vessel sustained damage after leaving the White Sea and then stopped in Norway for checks. A tender for its repairs was later launched and it was won by a Klaipėda-based company.
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