The SBU has notified the captain who commanded vessels in russia’s ‘shadow’ fleet that he is under suspicion

This has been reported by the Security Service of Ukraine and the Office of the Prosecutor General.

The SBU reports that it has gathered evidence against the captain of a foreign vessel detained in Odesa in December 2025. At the time, he was in command of a vessel flying the flag of an African country, which was due to transport a consignment of steel pipes out of the port.

The SBU established that, at the end of 2024, the suspect entered the seaport in the temporarily occupied city of Kerch on a tanker subject to sanctions. According to the case file, 2,000 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas were loaded onto the vessel there, intended for export to third countries.

Prior to this, in January 2021, the dry cargo vessel illegally exported nearly 7,000 tonnes of grain from Crimea to North Africa, the statement said.

"According to the investigation, in 2024 the suspect was in charge of a sanctioned gas tanker that systematically changed its name and flag to conceal its activities. Bypassing official checkpoints, the vessel entered the closed port of Kerch, from where it exported around 2,000 tonnes of liquefied gas to a country in the Middle East,” the prosecutor’s office reports.

During searches of the vessel, voyage plans, pilot cards, cartographic materials and radio communication logs were found, containing evidence of illegal entry into the ports of the temporarily occupied Crimea.

Investigators from the Security Service have now informed the detained captain that he is suspected of an offence under the Criminal Code of Ukraine concerning the violation of the procedure for entering and leaving the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. He faces up to five years’ imprisonment.

The investigation was conducted by SBU officers in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea under the procedural supervision of the Prosecutor’s Office in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol.

Source: Ekonomichna Pravda