Ilmenite Cargo Reloaded in the Kerch Strait onto the German Ship Again

Andrii KLYMENKO

Head of the Maidan of Foreign Affairs and Black Sea Institute of Strategic Studies monitoring group, the BlackSeaNews editor-in-chief, Yalta-Kyiv

As we have repeatedly registered, the shipping of ilmenite to the Kerch port of Kamysh-Burun continues on a monthly basis. The ilmenite ore is being used by the single buyer in the occupied peninsula — the Titan plant in Armyansk, in the north of Crimea, that is part of the corporate group owned by Dmytro Firtash.

Several days ago, we already reported that at the end of November 2017, the transportation of ilmenite to Crimea had taken a peculiar turn (German Ship Delivers 10,000 Tons of Ilmenite from Norway to the Occupied Crimea’s Titan Plant – a BSNews Investigation.)

Specifically, we investigated that on November 23, 2017, a German cargo ship HHL MISSISSIPPI (IMO: 9435765) arrived from the Romanian Constanta under the flag of Liberia to the roadstead of the Russian Port Kavkaz in the Kerch Strait (the same roadstead 451) and remained there until December 5, 2017.

\Over that period, for at least three times, an old Russian cargo ship NEFTERUDOVOZ-2 (IMO: 8986884) approached it and the HHL MISSISSIPPI onboard cranes loaded ilmenite to the NEFTERUDOVOZ-2 holds. After that, the Russian ship delivered ilmenite to the Kerch port of Kamysh-Burun.

It turned out, however, that this it was not a single incident, but rather a new scheme of circumventing the sanctions.

The December 23, 2017 transfer of Norwegian ilmenite from the German bulk carrier CALLISTO to the Russian cargo ship NEFTERUDOVOZ-2 destined to the occupied Crimea’s port of Kamysh-Burun at the Kerch Strait roadstead #451 (map based on www.marinetraffic.com).

Almost exactly a month later, on December 20, 2017, the same German bulk carrier CALLISTO (IMO: 9427392) arrived under the flag of Liberia to the same Russian Port Kavkaz roadstead #451 in the Kerch Strait, but with the double deadweight, which leads us to assume that this time it brought up to 25 thousand tons of ilmenite ore for the Crimean Titan plant.

Earlier, On December 5, just as the last time, the bunker had left the small Norwegian port of Jøssingfjord, the site one of the largest in Norwegian and one of the largest in Western Europe titanium mines Tellnes. The mine is run by Titania, while the fjord is used as the company’s port.

The CALLISTO bulk carrier (IMO: 9427392) belongs to HEINZ CORLEIS REEDEREI KG Kampweg 4A, 21706 Drochtersen, Germany.

On December 23, 2017, just as before, CALLISTO (IMO: 9427392) began reloading the ilmenite onto the Russian dry cargo vessel NEFTERUDOVOZ-2 (IMO: 8986884).

Roadstead #451, the site of the illegal transshipment of the ilmenite ore cargo destined to the occupied Crimea’s Kamysh-Burun port.

Illegal transshipment of the Norwegian ilmenite ore destined to the occupied Crimea’s Kamysh-Burun port from the German CALLISTO bulk carrier onto the Russian NEFTERUDOVOZ-2 dry cargo vessel, December 23, 2017. (map based on www.marinetraffic.com).

As can be seen from our black list excerpt below, the Russian dry cargo ship NEFTERUDOVOZ-2 (in some databases displayed under its old name PRANIK), is a seasoned perpetrator and besides, has repeatedly engaged in transporting ilmenite to Kamysh-Burun.

The evidence presented demonstrates that the violation is not a separate incident, but that most likely, Dmitry Firtash, the Titan owner, had signed a sizable deal with the Norwegian ilmenite miner.

The site of the ilmenite mine and port of Jøssingfjord in Norway.

In other words, the reputable companies from Germany and Norway are involved in the illegal scheme of export supplies to the occupied Crimea...

As we reported earlier, the scheme of supplying ilmenite from Norway to the occupied Crimean peninsula was recorded for the first time since the occupation of Crimea in November-December 2017. Earlier, similar schemes from the Ukrainian port Pivdennyi, Brazil and the largest one - from the Turkish port Samsun — having been noticed and subsequently highlighted in various journalistic investigations, attracted the attention of those countries’ authorities and were stopped.

The joint monitoring group of the Black Sea Institute of Strategic Studies, the Maidan of Foreign Affairs and the BlackSeaNews is confident that after this publication, the appropriate conclusions will be made as well…

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The monitoring of the violations of international sanctions against Russia and the legal regime of the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea is supported by the European program initiative of the "Renaissance" International Fund. The views of the authors do not necessarily reflect the position of the position of the "Renaissance" International Fund.