Ukraine arrests vessel for transporting grain through Crimea
UKRAINE detained and arrested a former Russian vessel in Odesa on charges of illegal export of grain through “the occupied Ukrainian territory of Crimea”.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor’s Office of Crimea and Sevastopol said that their investigation “established that the bulk carrier systematically entered closed Crimean ports”.
The prosecutor’s office told Lloyd’s List that in January 2021, the vessel was identified loading over 6,900 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat at Sevastopol and exported it to a country in Africa.
“The captain who was in charge of the vessel at that time was notified of suspicion in December 2025 for violating the procedure for entering and exiting the temporarily occupied territory,” it said.
The prosecutor’s office did not release the name of the vessel but said that its name has been repeatedly changed and flies the flag of an African country.
Lloyd’s List understands the vessel to be the 1992-built, 8,224 dwt, Guinea-Bissau flagged Gladius (IMO: 8919879).
The ship was previously called Aminah Star and was flagged with Palau, but it changed name and flag on October 30 according to Automatic Identification System data.
A review of Gladius’ AIS data shows a 16-day gap in transmissions from January 6, 2021 to January 22, 2021 while the ship was sailing in the Black Sea.
Gladius was owned by Russian shipping company Anship at the time.
Sources say Gladius was arrested several days ago.
Lloyd’s List Intelligence vessel tracking data shows Gladius entered the Black Sea on December 1 and sailed in the direction of Odesa.
Gladius turned off its AIS transmission on December 2 off the Ukrainian coast.
Ships calling at Ukraine’s deepsea ports are required to disable AIS for safety reasons.
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said that at the time of detention the master and 16 crew members were on board, none of which were Russian citizens.
The SBU claims the ship is operated by Russians, and during the initial search it found voyage plans and evidence of “illegal entry into ports of temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine”.
According to Lloyd’s List Intelligence, the current owner of Gladius is unknown, although the International Maritime Organization’s GISIS database indicates the last known registered owner is a company called Broadway Marine.
The statement from the prosecutor’s office indicated an investigation was underway.
“Law enforcement officers are documenting all episodes of the crime and identifying individuals involved in the illegal export of Ukrainian grain.” it told Lloyd’s List.
Ukraine has routinely decried grain theft and exports from the occupied territories and has called for international government support to tackle what it says is an expanding operation.
Gladius is not the first ship to be seized by Ukrainian authorities, but these occurrences remain relatively rare.
The Tanzania-flagged general cargoship Anka (IMO: 9365415) was detained in the Danube river in April, while the Cameroon-flagged general cargoship Usko Mfu (IMO: 7919781) was intercepted in July 2024.
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