Little President Zelensky violates international treaties. Ukraine is abusing Romania’s prudence in the context of the war with Russia

By Constantin Radut
On the secondary agenda of these days, in Romania at least, is the violation of international treaties regarding the Danube Delta, one of the largest in Europe.
The Danube branches into 3 arms at the entrance to the Delta, before emptying into the Black Sea. They are: Chilia, Sulina and Sf. Gheorghe, the Chilia arm taking over most of the flows. The Bâstroe channel is an illegal branch of the Chilia arm, in the Ukrainian delta, the Ukrainian delta being the newest and most dynamic part of the delta, with sediment deposits and the most active from this point of view.
The Bâstroe Canal is a canal proposed to connect the Danube and the Black Sea. The canal was built eight years ago on Ukrainian territory, in the Danube Delta.
Due to the fact that the Danube Delta is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Romania, the European Union and the United States of America have asked Ukraine to stop this project, due to possible interference with the delta’s ecosystem.
In June 2011, the Meeting of the Parties to the Espoo Convention reconfirmed that Ukraine continues to violate the Convention regarding the Bâstroe Canal project, considering that the warning addressed to this country in 2008 regarding this project remains in force. The works continued, and the Bastroe canal became navigable, but for small tonnage ships. Due to the clogging, the authorities of President Zelensky started in March of last year the deepening of this channel, from a depth of 3.5 meters to 7 meters. According to specialists in the field, this operation has serious effects on the fauna and vegetation of the Danube Delta.
At the beginning of the week, the Romanian Ministry of Transport summoned all the subordinate institutions with attributions regarding the deepening operations of the Bîstroe canal, as there is information that deepening works have already been carried out.
According to the Belgrade Convention of 1948, the only navigable channel accepted in the Danube Delta is the Sulina Canal.
The Minister of Transport informed Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă about the evolution of the situation.
Concretely, until this moment it is known that the Ukrainians have dredged up to a minimum of 7 m on the Bîstroe Canal, without informing the Romanian side about the start of the works, there are clear indications that that official communication from the Ukrainian side (e.g. the Embassy statement) was based on information false and on the denial of reality.
In parallel, the Ukrainian naval authorities have already notified the shipowners that the channel has a depth of 7 meters, which allows large ships to enter the Bîstroe Channel.
Regarding the Sulina branch, the main transport route between the Black Sea and the Danube, it is estimated that the flows are already low, which affects the movement of transport ships.
In addition, the cited source states, the dredging also carried out on the Chilia arm to ensure the flows on the Bâstroe causes the withdrawal of water from the adjacent channels in the Danube Delta and affects both flora and fauna and passenger transport.
“Ukrainians dump the dredged material into the Black Sea, and the sea currents bring this alluvium to Bara Sulina, which causes the depths to decrease. Already on Bara Sulina, the depth has decreased by 70 cm”, said the quoted source.
Information verified by Romanian officials shows that the works for navigation on the Bîstroe Canal were approved by the Council of Ministers of Ukraine as early as February 2022 (before the start of the war).
Later, the war was allegedly used as a pretext to obtain the transit agreement for third-party ships on the Bîstroe Canal, although the Bilateral Agreement allowed only ships with the flags of the riparian countries to transit the Canal. (The ships of the riparian states can only transit by respecting the initial depths of the Bîstroe Canal – 4.2. But the entry of third-party ships from the maritime zone actually leads to the need to deepen the channel).
The Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine states, in a post on Twitter, that the navigation depth on the Bîstroe Canal has increased from 3.9 to 6.5 meters, for the first time since the declaration of independence of the country.
“For the first time during Ukraine’s independence, the draft passing through the Bîstroe Canal has increased from 3.9 to 6.5 m. It is a great opportunity for the capacity of the Danube River and the turnover of export ports. We continue to develop the Danube port cluster together with our European partners”, reads the post published on Twitter on Friday.
The day before, the Ukrainian embassy in Bucharest specified that all works on the Bîstroe canal “are executed exclusively within the state border of Ukraine”. The embassy also reported that the works “exclusively aim at the maintenance of the waterway”.
What are the Romanian authorities doing in this situation of violation by Ukraine of international and bilateral treaties and conventions? Nothing.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, declared on Tuesday, about the scandal related to the works on the Bâstroe Canal, that he does not want to enter into political disputes on such serious subjects, which are related to Romania’s foreign policy, declaring himself convinced that such disputes are not viewed favorably by Romanians or outside Romania.
“I don’t want to get into political disputes on such serious subjects, which are related to Romania’s foreign policy, and I am convinced that such disputes are not viewed favorably by Romanians or outside Romania. I want this issue to be resolved as quickly as possible and I don’t want to make headlines”, said the minister.
The specific attitude of a bureaucratic dignitary disinterested in the problems of his country.
As for President Klaus Iohannis, he is hiding from the subject.