EU ports refuse to accept damaged ship carrying Russian fertilizer over 'megabomb' suspicions.
Moscow Times report 7th October
The Maltese-flagged cargo ship Ruby, which was damaged en route to Africa and was carrying Russian fertilizers, has been barred from ports in the European Union for several weeks due to concerns about the possible detonation of the ammonium nitrate it was carrying, The New York Times (NYT) reports. According to the publication, the bulk carrier left the port of Kandalaksha in the Murmansk region on August 22. It was supposed to deliver the cargo — 20,000 tons of ammonium nitrate — to Africa. However, shortly after leaving the port, the ship ran aground and suffered damage to its hull, propeller, and rudder.
The situation forced the ship's captain to start cruising the coasts of Northern European countries in search of help. Norway allowed the damaged vessel to enter the port of Tromsø, where it stayed from September 1 to 4. After that, the ship's crew planned to go to the Baltic for repairs, in particular, to Lithuania. But the country's Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė told parliament that the bulk carrier would be denied entry to the port of Klaipeda. Then the ship was refused entry in Malta and the UK.
As the ship approached British shores, Lithuania's former ambassador to the kingdom, Eitvydas Bajarunas, wrote in a column for a European think tank that the vessel was a "floating megabomb," warning of possible Russian sabotage.
As the NYT notes, Europe fears a repeat of the incident that occurred in the port of Beirut, where 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded on August 4, 2020. The explosion occurred due to welding work being carried out in a warehouse with ammonium nitrate. As a result, 280 people died, another 7 thousand were injured, and about 300 thousand were left homeless. The economic damage from the disaster exceeded $15 billion. After the explosion, protests began in the country, against the backdrop of which the Lebanese government resigned in full.
📸 26th October A damaged Russian-operated ship carrying 20,000 tonnes of explosive cargo is floating close to the Kent coast UK.
Link to our previous report. https://t.me/Ukraine_Report/25010
