Ukraine Seizes Cargo Ship & Detains Its Captain For Transporting Looted Grain To Russia
Ukraine has seized a foreign cargo ship and detained its captain on suspicion of assisting Moscow in exporting Ukrainian grain from Russian-occupied Crimea on the Danube River, officials reported on July 11, 2024.
Since the beginning of the 2022 conflict, Kyiv has accused Russia of transporting looted Ukrainian grain, but ship seizures have been rare, raising concerns among maritime sources about potential retaliation at a crucial time for Ukraine’s grain exports.
The Usko Mfu, a Cameroonian-flagged vessel, was stopped by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) near the Odesa region in the Black Sea.
According to the SBU, the ship arrived at the Crimean Sea Port of Sevastopol repeatedly in 2023-24 to collect agricultural products.
The captain, an Azerbaijani national, was detained along with 12 other crew members.
The captain could face up to five years in prison for violating travel restrictions in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied territory.
According to Ukraine’s SBU, an inquiry is ongoing to determine the crime’s circumstances and identify anyone else involved in the illegal activity.
The detained vessel was carrying grain allegedly stolen from Ukraine’s southern agricultural regions, which have been under Russian control since the first year of the invasion.
The SBU stated that the vessel was turning off its GPS tracker and logging fake travel information to hide its movements.
On one voyage in November 2023, the ship allegedly carried over 3,000 metric tons of agricultural supplies at Sevastopol for a Turkish company.
The ship’s manager, Turkey-based Iyem Asya, denied any wrongdoing.
A person commented that the ship did not take any cargo from Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine and never used Ukrainian ports under their management.
They further stated that Ukrainian forces boarded the ship on the Danube with a Romanian pilot present and forcibly anchored it on Ukraine’s side of the river.
Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office confirmed that according to LSEG ship-tracking data, the ship was last spotted at the Reni port on the Danube on July 8.
The incident highlights the constant tension and challenges of maritime operations in the Black Sea region.
The Danube remains vital for Ukraine’s grain exports, especially after Russia withdrew a UN-brokered agreement last summer that allowed Kyiv to sell grain during the crisis.
Ukraine has since resumed Black Sea exports, irrespective of Russian approval.
In response to the seizure, an anonymous law enforcement source stated that the vessel and its captain worked for the occupants, and he has now entered Ukrainian waters.
The European Union has also imposed prohibitive duties on Russian grain imports to reduce revenue flows to Moscow, complicating the region’s grain export scenario.
Reference: Reuters, Aljazeera
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