The State Hydrographic Service Ukraine continues to struggle against the Russian Federation commencing the official procedure aiming to create the special restricted sea area adjacent to the temporally occupied Crimean Peninsula, for the purpose to prohibit ship calls in all and every Crimean ports.
As previously reported, the State Hydrographic Service Ukraine (SHSU) compiles, produces and updates the complete national portfolio of the sea navigational charts for the zone under Ukrainian jurisdiction. Meanwhile, the Russian Federation also produces and distributes its own electronic navigational charts (ENC) for the sea areas adjacent to the coast of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, and the Ukrainian Coast of the Sea of Azov, in violation of all international rules, standards and norms. The action of the kind from the side of the aggressor country have already caused the ENC duplication between the Russian and Ukrainian ENCs and so, caused some threatens to navigation, while the very duplication could cause the unpredictable behavior of the shipborne digital navigational equipment (ECDIS), and even the ship collision. There have been already thirty-two cases of such duplication detected.
'We have already successfully insisted on termination of the RENC PRIMAR distribution and selling of the Russian charts that one hundred per cent covering the Ukrainian territorial waters. At the very moment, exercising all reasonable and available options, we are going to insist on the British RENC IC-ENC termination of the Russian charts for the Ukrainian waters. Another very important stage in the SHSU countermeasures against the Russian aggression is declaration by Ukraine the specially restricted sea area aiming to prohibit the ship calls in each and every Crimean sea ports and curb the Russian Federation illegal activity within the territorial waters of Ukraine around the Crimean Peninsula', says Mr Bohdan Ustymenko, Principal Deputy Head of the SHSU.
'The declaration of the specially restricted sea area will allow Ukraine not only counter measuring the aggressor country, but also ensuring the international obligations fulfillment across several areas – like to any conscientious and dutiful state governed by the rule of law. We will be able to mitigate the navigational and hydrographic safety risks for the mariners, to exonerate Ukraine from responsibility for any incidents that could be potentially caused by the illegal actions of the Russian Federation within the inland sea waters and territorial sea of Ukraine around the Crimean Peninsula, finally, to nullify Russian efforts to produce charts for the mentioned region', commentates Dr Oleksandr Shchyptsov, Head of the SHSU.
By means of all mentioned comprehensive steps, the SHSU is going to wrest out termination the illicit distribution of the electronic charts produced by the Russia for the Ukrainian waters. Moreover, these very steps will allow complete ceasing of ship calls in the Crimean ports – both of those flying the Russian and third foreign countries flags. That is why, the SHSU claims the Ukrainian state agencies, both the Ukrainian and global communities to adjoin the SHSU's initiatives and so, protect the national interests of Ukraine and save the mariners' lives.
State Hydrographic Service Ukraine (SHSU)
