A cargo ship with links to Russia packed with explosive fertiliser is floating off the Kent coast after being denied entry at other ports over safety fears.
Ruby, a Maltese-flagged cargo ship carrying 20,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser from a port in Russia, was ordered out of Tromso in Norway and turned away from Danish waters.
More alleged shenanigans with this craft drifting around the North Sea, ostensibly enroute to the Canaries.
It’s a thing they do, bit mafia-esque, they sail a mostly un-seaworthy hulk full of oil, minerals, heavy metals, in this case fertilizer, off the coast of a picturesque port of yours, and say “here’s your order, you better pay to pick it up!”.
Either you wait for the ship to go aground and destroy the local environment, or you buy the stuff, offload it, and pay them to tow the ship “outside of the environment”.
It’s their way of forcing sales and trying to break their way back into markets in a fairly threatening way.
It’s not intentional. They screwed up the ship and nobody wants a damaged ship full of enormous amounts of explosive material in their port.
That ship in Beiruit had similar issues – it wasn’t seaworthy, so wasn’t allowed to leave, and the owners just abandoned it in port, where (a) all the ammonium nitrate was offloaded and the port authority in Beiruit had to deal with it and (b) the sunken hull.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Rhosus
The ship is still blocking Beirut port space.
I think that a likely better concern is less that the thing is going to just blow up after reaching port – though I did read an earlier article pointing out that if repairs require welding, that it’s a risk – and more that it might wind up abandoned in port like the other ship.
I’m sure Ukraine could find a use. Maybe we tow it to a port of their choosing?
Where’s the Black Sea fleet hiding again?
Just tie it up right next to a diesel oil freighter and let it bask in the London Thames for a bit.