A captain was detained in Odesa: he is suspected of transporting Ukrainian grain stolen from the Russian Federation

The Security Service of Ukraine detained a foreign cargo ship and its captain in the Odesa region. The man is suspected of cooperating with the Russians in the export of Ukrainian grain from the temporarily occupied Crimea.

As reported by the department, the ship was sailing under the flag of one of the countries of Central Africa, and its crew was carrying out an order from the Russian Federation to export Ukrainian grain.

According to the investigation, during 2023-2024, the ship repeatedly docked at the sea port of Sevastopol to pick up looted agricultural products, then it was transported to the Middle East for sale to the aggressor country.

«To disguise the crime, the captain periodically turned off the ship's GPS tracker and entered inaccurate information into the vessel's route and parking log. In this way, he helped the Russians to export multi-ton consignments of Ukrainian grain stolen from the temporarily occupied regions in the south of Ukraine,» the message reads.

It is noted that the captain of the cargo ship is a citizen of one of the countries of the South Caucasus, and the crew included 12 more foreigners.

During the search on board the ship, documents, navigation aids and other physical evidence were found. The captain was informed of suspicion under Part 2 of Article 332-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (violation of the procedure for entering and leaving the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine).

Currently, the suspect's vessel was towed to Odesa and he was arrested by court order. The investigation is ongoing.

In May of this year, the Council of the EU adopted a resolution on the introduction of prohibitive duties on grain products imported from Russia and Belarus.

It will be recalled that the Financial Times published an investigation in which, using the example of one vessel, it showed how Russia trades in stolen Ukrainian grain from the Zaporizhzhia region.