Ukraine on Thursday opened a new ship canal through the Danube River delta despite strong criticism from both Brussels and neighbouring Romania. Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma headed a government delegation at a ribbon-cutting ceremony aboard a Ukrainian navy cutter anchored near the village Vilkovo, at the terminus of the recently-completed channel. Three Ukrainian government vessels then set off down the canal, with their arrival in the Black Sea expected later in the day. The Ukrainian-build waterway, called the "Danube-Black Sea Canal", is some 40 kilometers long and connects the Black Sea with the Bystroye estuary of the Danube River. The Bystroye is the eastern-most of the three main channels through which the Danube River enters the Black Sea. Prior to the opening of the Ukrainian canal Romania had controlled and earned tolls from ship traffic moving between the Danube basin and the Black Sea in the river's western-most estuary, the Sulima. The opening of the Ukrainian canal ends a Romanian monopoly on tolls. The European Commission on Wednesday criticized the Ukrainian works project, saying "the canal route goes through a specially protected UNESCO World Heritage area in the Danube Delta which is also subject to the international Ramsar Convention on the protection of wetlands." --more 1506 Local Time 1206 GMT
