UK Dock Workers Refuse To Unload Russian Ships Over Invasion Of Ukraine
March 7, 2022 in News by RBN Staff
source: zerohedge
Here we go again: dockworkers in Britain are getting a little bit uppity after watching from afar as their peers across Europe have either seized property (mostly yachts and luxury homes) or simply acted to sink it (as that one Spanish dockworker did).
Just yesterday, a Ukrainian worker manning an oligarch-owned yacht deliberately scuttled it. He almost entirely sank the vessel acting totally on its own, although it was able to be salvaged according to ship records.
Now, in the UK, dock workers are uniting in solidarity to try and stop Russian oil and LNG from being unloaded at British ports.
According to CNBC, one transit group said it was “proud” of its workers for taking matters into their own hands?
Essar Group, which runs the Stanlow refinery in northwest England, said a German-flagged vessel had been given approval to berth at the nearby Tranmere Oil Terminal on the River Mersey. However, Sharon Graham, the general secretary of U.K. union Unite, said that her members will “under no circumstances unload any Russian oil regardless of the nationality of the vessel which delivers it.”
“I am very proud of @unitetheunion’s members taking a principled stand to prevent Russian oil coming to our ports,” she added via a tweet early on Sunday.
“But it is appalling that they have been put in this position by the @GOVUK, which is still dragging its feet on sanctions.”
The sailor ultimately attempted to sink the 157-foot-long Lady Anastasia (owned by Russian businessman Alexander Mikheev) in Mallorca, Spain because of his boss’s involvement with selling Russian made weapons like thermobaric missiles. The yacht hand was identified as Taras Ostapchuk; he was arrested Saturday before being freed (and leaving the country).
“They were attacking innocents,” Ostapchuk told local media before adding that he would attempt to sink the yacht again if given anotherchance. Mikheev, 61, is the head of Rosoboronexport, a company that specializes in exporting weapons, such as tanks, ships, weapons and ammunition.
Ostapchuk reportedly said he tried to sink the ship after seeing footage of a helicopter attacking a building in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, after Russia launched a war in the country last week.
Italian authorities have already seized more than $150 million worth of ships and villas from Russian oligarchs. But for the most part, properties owned by wealthy Russians remained in their place.