Captain of USKO MFU Vessel Used to Export Grain From Crimean Ports Served Notice of Suspicion

The ship was detained in the Port of Reni, Odesa region, in July 2024.

Under the procedural guidance of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, the captain of the foreign cargo vessel USKO MFU, which was used to export agricultural products from the closed seaports in the occupied Crimea, has been served notice of suspicion in absentia.

The Prosecutor General’s Office announced this in a statement, the CFTS portal reports.

He is suspected of violating the procedure for entering and leaving temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine (Part 2 of Article 332-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

An investigation revealed that the foreign national, commanding the USKO MFU under the flag of Cameroon, unlawfully entered the closed Sevastopol Commercial Seaport in October 2023 in violation of Ukrainian legislation and international maritime law.

There, the ship was loaded with over 3,000 tons of agricultural products destined for a Turkish company.

In November 2023, the suspect illegally piloted the USKO MFU out of the port of Sevastopol.

To conceal his illegal activities, the captain periodically turned off the ship’s Automatic Identification System (AIS), in violation of maritime safety regulations, and entered fictitious information about the ship’s course into the system.

In July 2024, the USKO MFU was detained in the port of Reni (Odesa region) under the procedural guidance of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Based on a court order, the ship was seized and transferred to the National Agency for the Identification, Tracing, and Management of Assets Linked to Corruption and Other Crimes (the Asset Recovery Agency).

A second captain of this ship, who commanded the ship when it illegally entered and left the port of Sevastopol in June 2024, was served notice of suspicion under Part 2 of Article 332-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine in July 2024.