On 12 June, the Dniprovskyi District Court of Kyiv granted the motion of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol to transfer a foreign vessel to the custody of the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) for further asset disposal.

Context: In April 2025, the vessel was detained in Ukraine’s inland waters on the Danube River. According to the investigation, in November 2024, the foreign-flagged bulk carrier illegally exported over 4,600 tonnes of wheat from the Sevastopol Commercial Sea Port, which has been officially closed by Ukraine. The grain was likely seized by representatives of the aggressor state in the temporarily occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. It was intended for sale to third countries via occupied Crimea.

After loading cargo at one of the ports in Moldova, the vessel was sailing through Ukraine’s territorial waters when it was detained. During the search, law enforcement officers seized navigation equipment, computers, mobile phones, vessel documentation, and other evidence confirming the commission of the crime.

The vessel’s captain has been formally charged under Part 2 of Article 332-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — for violating the procedure for entering and leaving the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine with the intent to harm the interests of the state. The pre-trial investigation, under the procedural supervision of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, is ongoing. It is being conducted by the Main Department of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, in cooperation with units of the Maritime Guard of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine and the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Measures are being taken to establish all the circumstances of the unlawful activity and to identify those involved.