(14 April 2025, 11 AM, Istanbul, the Republic of Türkiye)
Dear colleagues!
I am glad to participate in this anniversary meeting of the Port State Control Committee of the Black Sea Memorandum of Understanding.
Thank you for the honor to speak here on behalf of the Ukrainian side. Today we are together in Istanbul, a gateway city to the Black Sea and a lighthouse that guides our way to the world.
We have been working side by side for twenty-five years. This number is impressive, but it also imposes more responsibility on us. It has been twenty-five years since the Member Authorities started to provide port state inspections together. It is our duty, as well as our desire, to promote safety and protect the environment.
In March, I had the privilege to meet the IMO Secretary General in Ukraine. Arsenio Dominguez is also dedicated to sustainability and marine conservation. So we should follow his lead and perform our port state control obligations with due diligence. In fact, here is the proper place to discuss our efficiency and coordination.
These are crucial now more than ever, as the shadow fleet and substandard vessels challenge the safety of international shipping.
During the latest session of the Legal Committee, IMO initiated a regulatory scoping exercise to address the issue. I encourage you to engage in this work as well. We must prevent accidents like the one that happened with the Volgoneft tankers nearby the Ukrainian territorial waters in the Kerch Strait.
Everyone has already seen its implications.
But I am willing to tell you more about the difficult conditions in which Ukraine performs its functions amid the russia’s aggression.
Again, all this happens in the twenty-first century. Ukrainian port infrastructure is under regular russian attacks.
More than three hundred eighty port facilities have been destroyed or damaged, and as many as seventeen port workers have been killed. For instance, this year, on the eleventh of March, the Barbados-flagged ship MJ PINAR suffered a russian attack in the port of Odesa. It claimed the lives of four seafarers. And these statistics only cover our port state control activities. Civilian cities and infrastructure are also shelled. I want everyone here to recall once again how on the fourth of April the aggressors targeted the city of Kryvyi Rih with a cluster ballistic missile, killing nine Ukrainian children. Yesterday, Russia tragically struck the city of Sumy. Thirty-two people, two children, were killed. It’s a horrible scene.
However, in the face of the russia's ongoing aggression, Ukraine continues to perform
international obligations, contrary to the aggressor state. We do our utmost to ensure the global food security. With the assistance of our European partners, the Ukrainian grain corridor operates steadily. In our ports that are not temporarily occupied or officially closed, we keep detentions and laytime to a minimum.
Ukraine has implemented inspection procedures that are optimized and transparent. The entire process is recorded with the use of body cameras. We also invest in the procurement of inspectors’ equipment. Despite the limited wartime budget, they obtain transport and computer hardware.
Lastly, I would like to stress our mission for a sustainable future. We have to enforce fair inspections of ships for compliance with international treaties on the safety of life at sea and the pollution prevention. In the meantime, it is our fight for stability of the whole region.
A state that treats the Black Sea as a potential battlefield and plans to destroy the fundamental international principles must be held accountable for its criminal conduct. It should be deprived of the right to membership of any civilized institution. The Port State Control Committee of the Black Sea Memorandum of Understanding is one of them.
I thank you all for your attention.
Slava Ukraini!
