On February 20, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania summoned the Ambassador of Ukraine to Bucharest in connection with the deepening of the Danube bed by the Ukrainians in the delta in the Bystroye Canal. Romania will turn to the European Commission if it finds that the Ukrainian side is deepening the Danube, thereby endangering the unprecedented wildlife of the Danube Delta, Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Chuca announced.
In 2004, Ukraine began work in the Danube Delta at the mouth of the Chilia branch in the northern part of the border between Romania and Ukraine, to open its own sea outlet for its river ports. The deepening of the Bystry canal, which connects the Kiliya channel with the Black Sea, was later suspended under international pressure.
The Romanian prime minister, who arrived at the meeting of the National Liberal Party, said that Romania had asked the Ukrainian side to allow it to inspect the Bystry Canal on the spot. Prior to this, Romania did not contribute to its deepening for environmental reasons.
Chuca pointed out that, according to Kyiv, we are talking about “normal maintenance” of the existing fairway, which has a depth of 3.5 meters. What goes beyond that is the deepening of the riverbed, the Romanian prime minister warned.
Deepening the Danube in its own canal would be important for Ukraine, since larger ships could travel from the Black Sea to Ukrainian river ports via the Bystroe canal and the northern branch in the river delta in the Chilia channel without affecting Romania.
Prime Minister Chuca noted that Romania is doing everything possible to maintain navigation on the Danube. Soon Bucharest will also allow night traffic on the Sulina branch. For this reason, the Romanian prime minister hopes that traffic jams can be avoided. The Romanian Prime Minister noted that the flow of cargo along the Sulina arm has increased several times since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine, which often leads to ships waiting for days in the Black Sea at the border crossing to enter the Danube Delta.
A coalition partner, the chairman of the Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSD), took a much more militant stance. PSD Chairman Marcel Čolaku declared that under no circumstances would Romania allow the destruction of the Danube Delta.
“Work on the Bystry Canal must be stopped immediately! The Romanian people and the Romanian state were in solidarity with Ukraine and came to her aid when she found herself in a difficult situation. But the Romanians will not tolerate being deprived of the natural wonder that is the Danube Delta.” wrote the SDP chairman on Monday.
Ciolacu stated that “the lies, manipulation and simplification of the problem” must end, the Romanian authorities must act immediately, and all bilateral and international agreements will be used to preserve the Delta for future generations.
Deepening the river bed to 8-10 meters would dramatically increase water flow, causing irreversible damage to the biodiversity of the Danube Delta, warned the chairman of the Social Democratic Party.
While the Ukrainian ambassador in Bucharest tried to reassure the Romanian authorities that they were only carrying out repairs on the Bystroe Canal, Ukraine’s Ministry of Infrastructure said in a Friday tweet that for the first time since the country’s independence, the depth of the Bystroe Canal had been increased from 3.9 meters up to 6.5 meters, which is an excellent opportunity for river navigation and Ukrainian ports on the Danube. “Together with our European partners, we will continue to develop our Danube ports,” the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure promised in a message addressed to the Romanian “partners.”
