No official notification from Ankara about detention of Russian ship — embassy - TASS

There was no official notification from Turkish officials about the detention of a Russian cargo ship, the Russian embassy in Turkey said on Sunday.

"We have not been officially notified by Turkey about it as of yet," an embassy spokesman told TASS.

Ukraine’s Ambassador to Turkey Vasily Bodnar said earlier on Sunday that a Russian-flagged cargo ship carrying Ukrainian grain had been detained at Kiev’s request by the Turkish customs authorities. He said that the ship’s fate would be decided at a meeting of investigators on July 4.

Meanwhile, a Turkish customs officer in the port of Karasu neither confirmed nor refuted Kiev’s allegations about the detention of the Russian ship. However, a source at the port said that the ship had been waiting for a permit to call at Karasu since July 1 but has not received it so far.

According to the Dogan News Agency, the Russian Zhibek Zholy cargo ship delivered grain to the port of Karasu to be further transported to Konya in central Turkey by trucks.

Member of the Zaporozhye military-civilian administration Vladimir Rogov also neither confirmed nor refuted reports that a merchant ship that sailed off from the port of Berdyansk was detained in Turkey.