Ukrainians Place Buoys on Romanian Arm of the Danube Delta

The Ukrainian authorities placed two buoys inside the Romanian section of the Chilia arm of the Danube Delta, close to Chilia and Periprava villages. The Ukrainians did not consult their Romanian counterparts, who found out about the marking out of the channel from the fishermen. The action takes place less the 48 hours since Kiev made public that the work for widening the Bastroe channel was completed.

Robert Raduta, the grantee for the northern section of the Danube Delta, confirmed the Ukrainians placed the two buoys.
"The one at Chilia is an anchor buoy for a fishing dredger, while the one closer to Periprava is a signal buoy. The very serious thing is that both are in Romanian national waters, but the Ukrainians were not interested to observe the border, as usual. Furthermore, the signal buoy is placed right where the Danube is deep and Romanian fishermen could fish with large nets. Now they cannot do that any longer," explained Raduta.

Placing the buoys on the Chilia arm may be a sign that the Ukrainians are ready to start dredging it for the planned 160-kilometer section of the channel, to allow passage of big ships.
As Jurnalul National previously informed, deepening the northern arm of the Danube would result in a stronger water flow through it, thus lowering the water flow on the other two main Danube Delta arms: Sulina and Sfantu Gheorghe.
This man-induced unbalance in water flows could have catastrophic results for the Danube Delta Biosphere Reservation.