For over 20 years, without having even a meter of shoreline on the Danube, russians effectively used the status of a Danube state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But now, the countries participating in the Belgrade Convention will not recognize obligations to russia.
This is a victory for Ukrainian government officials, diplomats, and all representatives of Ukraine who took part in the commission’s work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In particular, last year, the UDP delegation emphasized not only the need to exclude russia. We proposed to deprive russian of its status as one of the commission’s official languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Formally, russia no longer influences Danube logistics, but in reality, Russian business on the Danube remains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before the war, arguably the most extensive shadow scheme on the Danube was the smuggling of russian petroleum products. For decades, the legendary 61st mile operated, where stolen or smuggled diesel fuel bunkered both river and sea fleets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Currently, we have completely eliminated the possibility of UDP vessels participating in shadow fuel schemes, but do all other shipowners maintain equally strict control?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
russian business operates on the Danube quite officially. For example, the Bulgarian LUKOIL Neftochim or the Serbian NIS, which belongs to “Gazprom.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UDP has long ceased cooperation with fuel suppliers related to russia, which in some cases led to acute conflicts. In 2022, after our refusal to continue working with NIS, the UDP fleet was arrested. The legal process lasted over a year. But compromises are not possible in this matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recently, we bunkered our sea vessel in Bulgaria – finding out that the trader was connected to the aggressor state, we urgently found another supplier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why is it important to finally clear the Danube of the influence of russian structures?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Petroleum products are not only additional income for the russian budget. It’s an opportunity for influence, for recruiting the necessary people on the fleet. It’s no surprise that some “old fleet workers” who previously “muddled” with fuel, today work for the enemy. But that’s a topic for another conversation, to which we will definitely return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For over 20 years, without having even a meter of shoreline on the Danube, russians effectively used the status of a Danube state. But now, the countries participating in the Belgrade Convention will not recognize obligations to russia.This is a victory for Ukrainian government officials, diplomats, and all representatives of Ukraine who took part in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n