Russians Disabling Ships’ Identification Systems to Enable Smuggling of Looted Goods From Ukrainian Ports

The occupiers are shipping looted goods out of the ports of Mariupol and Berdiansk, reloading them in their official ports, and then transporting them in other ships.

The Russians are turning off the automatic identification systems on some of their ships so that they can export looted goods and make illegal use of the Ukrainian ports that are officially closed.

This was stated by Lieutenant Commander Dmytro Pletenchuk, the spokesperson for the Ukrainian Navy, the CFTS portal reports.

“In order to plunder the occupied territories and ship metal, grain, etc. from there, the Russians are turning off the identification systems on some of their ships, and they are simply not visible at sea. Is this being documented? Yes, of course,” he said.

Pletenchuk stressed that the main point in this issue is also the Russian use of ports that are officially closed, which means that calls at these ports and their use are prohibited.

“As a result, these Russian ships are subject to sanctions. These sanctions apply not only to Ukrainian ports, the Russians can be subject to these sanctions in other ports as well. That is why they are using some ships to export looted goods directly from Mariupol and Berdiansk and transferring the goods within their official ports, from where the goods are subsequently transported on other ships,” the Ukrainian Navy spokesperson said.