Ukraine - Facts

*** ALERT: On 24 February 2022 Russia launched a large scale invasion of Ukraine which is ongoing. As yachts are not currently visiting Ukraine, we have moved Ukraine to the inactive country list.  ***

Ukraine Country Updates

Due to Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine, we are not seeing users access Ukraine information regularly. We are prioritizing and focusing efforts on keeping the most visited countries up to date.

If you plan to visit Ukraine or believe that we have made an error, please send us an email at noonsite@noonsite.com. We will assign a team member to work with our contacts to update the formalities information that you are interested in. If you have visited Ukraine on a yacht, we would love to hear from you, please send us an email or leave a comment about your experience.

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Ukraine Facts for Sailors

• March 2022: Russia-Ukraine Conflict - Any foreign vessel in Ukrainian waters had to leave immediately, broadcasting clearly on AIS and making their intentions known.
• Important pre-arrival information: It is the law that an agent is used for clearance and it is advisable that a reliable one is identified in advance of arrival. See Clearance for details.
• Set on the northern shores of the Black Sea, between the Azov Sea and the Danube Delta, Ukraine has been endowed by nature with many more natural harbors than any of its neighbors. Some of these are on the Azov Sea, an enclosed body of water. This almost completely enclosed body of water is reached through a narrow cut, on the shores of which stands the old city of Kerch.
• The Crimean seaports of Balaklava, Kerch, Sevastopol, Feodosia, Yalta, and Yevpatoria have now been designated by the Ukrainian authorities as closed to international shipping.
• Facilities for yachts are limited but are constantly improving, and the opening of a new marina in Odessa has made a great difference to the comfort of visiting sailors.
• Locals, however, have a limited understanding of sailing and tend to name anything that has sailing vessels housed there a "Yacht Club". Consequently, many ports have an abundance of Yacht Clubs, when in fact the majority are dinghy sailing clubs with no facilities for visiting cruising boats.
• Several rallies held in the Black Sea in recent years have persuaded the authorities to bring about some considerable improvements to the yachting infrastructure. Independence and the freedom to travel have seen an amazing upsurge in the number of locally built sailing boats, some of which have been enjoying the newfound freedom by sailing in large numbers to Greece and beyond. This interest in yachting should eventually result in better facilities for pleasure craft.
• A good source of information about Ukraine can be found in the The Black Sea Guide from the RCC Pilotage Foundation.
• The small country of Moldova, Ukraine's western neighbor, only has a token exit to the Black Sea, on the right bank of the Dniester River.