The Ukrainians’ Beacons Remain near the Romanian Shore

The Ukrainians have put signaling beacons at only 10 meters away from the Romanian shore of the Danube’s Chilia branch. This is a direct violation of the treaty between Romania and Ukraine, active since this year. Next week during the mixed Romanian - Ukrainian Commission there will be negotiations regarding these beacons.

Virgil Munteanu, the governor of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Administration, draw the attention upon the fact that the Ukrainians have put signaling beacons on the Danube, in the Old Chilia branch, 10 meters away from the Romanian shore. This happened on Tuesday during the meeting of the Operative - Advisory Commission in the Tulcea district, says Rompress.

"From my point of view, these beacons block the normal fishing operations", explained governor Munteanu. On the other hand, Gheorghe Ftadeev, the director of the Shipping Channels’ Security department in the Shipping Territorial Authority (STA) in Tulcea, stated "locating the Ukrainian beacons is healthy for the shipping activities". The chief inspector of the County Frontier Police Inspectorate, Doru Axinte, sustained that he cannot give his verdict on this matter, "because the beacons mark the shipping channel, and this is not an issue that concerns the Frontier Police".

DESPITE. The problem is far from being solved. According to the treaty with Ukraine that became active in April this year, Romania should be informed about any operation of this kind at least 20 days earlier. The clause no. 35 of the Treaty says: "Border crossing made by persons that take care of the railways, roads or other services that cross the border, as well as by those persons that work in the frontier waters will be regulated by separate agreements". Well, the Ukrainians not only that they didn’t do this, but, more than that, they threw the beacons only 10 meters away from the Romanian shore. "It is possible that those beacons would mark the shipping channel, a very good thing by the way. But we don’t know for sure whether the shipping channel passes through there. There is a possibility that few meters away from the beacon, inside the channel, a sand bank would stop any ship. As long as the beaconing has been made without the authorized Romanian personnel knowing it we can expect anything from the Ukrainian side", say sources inside STA Tulcea. "This operation could be much more dangerous that the deliberate sinking of the Rostock ship", also say sources inside the Frontier Police.

NEGOTIATIONS. Sources inside the Frontier Police stated for us: "The beacons 10 meters away from the Romanian shore represent in fact a signal that in these areas the Ukrainian drags work on the Danube’s un-bulling and implicitly countersinking the shipping channel. They are there for the shipping safety. The mixed commission will meet next week and will take into consideration these beacons. Taking into account that the Frontier Police represents the state at the country’s frontier, any direct action from us on this issue might create diplomatic tensions, even if they violated the neighborhood Treaty." The same sources also said that the Presidency interdicted any action to create pressure on the East border of Romania.

PROOF. Last week the Jurnalul National reporters got to the place where the Ukrainians anchored their drags, few meters away from the Romanian shore. Now, the ships work day and night, dragging near the Maican Island and above the Old Chilia branch. The main drag has one of the anchors less than 10 meters away from the Romanian shore, and few hundreds of meters away, a signaling beacon indicating km 36.5 is only 4 meters away from the shore, in the Romanian territorial waters. The anglers there say there might be some solutions, the simplest one being to rent a ship to move away the beacons and the anchors of the Ukrainians, but there is no one to seem interested in this matter. This happens after a few months ago, a Romanian angler, made leeway on the Chilia branch got on the Ukrainian shore. The Ukrainian frontier-guards incarcerated him for a few days.