Russian tanker stuck in Polish port for 8 years to be broken up
The Russian tanker Khatanga has left the port of Gdynia after eight years in Poland.
Source: Arkadiusz Marchewka, State Secretary at the Ministry of Infrastructure of Poland; European Pravda reports citing Polish news portal RMF FM
Details: The vessel has been there since 2017, causing damage and threatening the safety of shipping.
"We are taking Russian scrap out of Poland," Arkadiusz Marchewka said on Friday.
The deputy infrastructure minister said the tanker would be sent to Denmark, where it would be broken up and "cut into pieces". The Maritime Administration in Gdynia reported that the vessel already had the official status of scrap.
"The previous government did nothing with it for years. The Russian ship was just standing in port. They did not pay any fees…The security of our ports is key," Markiewka added.
The procedure for "removing" the vessel and transporting it to the shipyard in Denmark is subject to strict European law and requires international cooperation.
The vessel could not sail independently, so technical work has been carried out on board since March to facilitate its removal.
In March, the tanker twice broke away from its berth, threatening the safety of other vessels.
On Friday, the Maritime Administration in Gdynia said that the "withdrawal" of the Khatanga from the port of Gdynia is in line with the perspective of the Polish presidency of the Council of the European Union, which ends in June and has the slogan "Security, Europe!".
Background:
- A group of European countries with maritime access agreed at a meeting on Thursday 19 June to take further measures to counter Russia's so-called shadow fleet.
- The Swedish government had adopted a new resolution to strengthen insurance checks on foreign vessels in order to tighten control over Russia's so-called shadow fleet.
- The European Union has already added nearly 350 vessels from the shadow fleet to the sanctions list, most recently on 20 May.
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