The Ukrainian military gave its consent on Thursday to begin measurements for the Chilia Arm. The Romanian authorities are preparing the last formalities, and the checks will begin in the shortest possible time. The Minister of Transport, Sorin Grindeanu, sent a message on Facebook that the agreement is only for Chilia Arm and that the agreement is also expected for the Bystroye channel.
The Ukrainian military approved the measurement program, and the written agreement came on Thursday. At these moments, they are working on organizing the operations. There are three ships that will participate in these measurements, plus two other support ships, being ships from the Lower Danube River Administration.
Romanian and Ukrainian experts will participate in the measurements. The measurements will last ten days, and the interpretation of the results could take about four weeks, with the participation of Ukrainian experts at this last stage. Romania announced two weeks ago that it wants to carry out checks starting from March 15. So far, the data provided by the Romanian Water state company show that there are no significant changes in the flows on the Chilia arm and on the Bystroye secondary arm compared to previous years.
“The Ukrainian side has given a partial agreement for the start of measurements on the Chilia arm (the Ukrainian side), starting tomorrow. This agreement concerns the sector between km 22 and km 116 on this arm of the Danube, and the measurements will be carried out only during the day. In the previous discussions with the Ukrainian officials, we requested that the measurements on the Chilia branch start from km 11. We insist that the fleet of specialized ships of Romania receive access to the other sectors of the Chilia branch (between km 11 and km 22) but also to the channel Bystroye. Given that even the representatives of the European Commission supported Romania’s requests, I believe that it is in the interest of both countries to clarify the issue of dredging carried out by Ukraine on the entire Chilia arm and on the Bystroye channel,” Romanian Transport minister said in a Facebook post.
The Romanian and Ukrainian authorities agreed, on March 3, in the first technical meeting regarding the dredging of the Bâstroe canal, that Romania should start measurements on the Chilia arm and the Bystroye canal from March 15, but this did not happen because Ukraine did not give its consent written.
The Minister of the Environment, Tanczos Barna, declared on Monday that this written agreement is needed “to leave with the three ships and to measure, lengthwise, the depths on Chilia and then to enter the Bystroye Channel which is one hundred percent on Ukrainian territory and to be able to check the depths, to calculate the flows, if only dredging works have been done, to maintain the depths and to ensure that the flows have not changed in such a way that they affect the biodiversity in the medium and long term from the Delta”.
According to Tanczos Barna, the ships that will go to the area belong to the Ministry of Transport, which come with sensors, with accommodation space for the crew, being an activity for several days