KIEV, April 18 - The Atlantic Cruiser, a German ship chartered by a Ukrainian company, carried no military purpose goods, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry asserted.

"We have reports that there are no weapons there [on board the ship], and that the cargo is exclusively civilian in nature," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleksandr Dykusarov said at a briefing in Kiev on Wednesday.

He added that according to Ukraine's Consulate General in Hamburg, the ship's owner released an official statement about the situation around the ship and denied reports of the presence of military purpose goods on board the vessel.