Adviser to the mayor of Mariupol Petro Andryushchenko said that the RM3 "river-sea" ship under the Russian flag had re-entered the city's port. The metal produced by Metinvest (Azovstal) was shipped to the Mariupol Mariupol Sea commercial port before the war and was supposed to be exported to Spain, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Portugal and Turkey.
"Russia is really celebrating in the port. Another shipment of stolen metal from the dock. For the third time," adviser to the mayor of Mariupol Petro Andryushchenko.
The 1st 2 ships have already fully loaded 2.000 tons of rolled metal each and taken it to the Russian port of Rostov-on-Don. Which ships have already been looted and which are next: SMARTA (Liberia), AZOV CONCORD (Malta), AZBURG (Dominica), TZAREVNA (Malta), BLUE STAR I (Panama) and LADY AUGUSTA (Jamaica). The total tonnage of loaded rolled metal products is 28.000 tons of metallurgical products.
Prior to the piracy, Metinvest, the owner of the metal, said there was a high risk that Russia would steal and export the metal and then sell it through the ports of Rostov, Taganrog, Novorossiysk, Tuapse, and temporarily occupied Ukrainian Sevastopol.
"Under international law and Ukrainian law, the actions of the aggressor country's representatives in the armed seizure of Metinvest's merchant ships and products have all the hallmarks of piracy and violations of the laws and customs of war in the form of looting, which are serious international crimes. Metinvest group will make every possible legal effort to bring all perpetrators and their accomplices to strict legal responsibility," Metinvest group commented.
Earlier, Ihor Barskyy, head of the Mariupol Sea commercial port, said that Russia had begun partially demining Ukrainian ports and rebuilding their infrastructure to have time to export as much looted Ukrainian property as possible. As of today, the port of Mariupol contains metal and grain worth more than $170 million.
