General view of the port and city of Haifa, Israel, June 15, 2025. AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP
For more than three weeks, the Russian bulk carrier Abinsk, carrying 43,700 metric tons of Ukrainian wheat, waited offshore near the port of Haifa, Israel, pending authorization to dock. The ship's route was tracked by Ukrainian authorities and by experts monitoring Russia's circumvention of international sanctions.
On April 12, it was permitted to dock in Haifa, where it may have unloaded its cargo, valued at about €8.5 million at current wheat prices. The Abinsk then left Haifa the same day, heading for the Dardanelles Strait with the Turkish port of Çanakkale listed as its next stop, according to Marinetraffic.com, a vessel-tracking website.
The Russian bulk carrier reportedly loaded its cargo at the port of Kavkaz on the Kerch Strait, which separates the Sea of Azov from the Black Sea and links the Russian Federation to Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, according to Ukrainian investigative journalist Kateryna Yaresko, who works for the SeaKrime project at Myrotvorets, an online collaborative platform listing "enemies of Ukraine." Yaresko said the wheat was loaded onto other bulk carriers from grain terminals in Ukrainian ports occupied by Russia.
