Captain of cargo ship arrested for smuggling Ukrainian grain from Crimea

The Security Service of Ukraine has arrested a cargo ship and its captain off the coast of Odessa for allegedly exporting stolen Ukrainian grain.

According to the security service, the unnamed ship was sailing under the flag of a Central African country and the crew had received orders from Russia to export Ukrainian grain from the occupied Crimean peninsula.

The investigation found that the ship repeatedly docked in Sevastopol in 2023 and 2024 to pick up stolen agricultural products. After loading, the ship transported the cargo to the Middle East for sale. The captain is alleged to have regularly turned off the ship’s GPS tracker and falsified docking log entries to conceal what the ship was doing.

The security service said the captain had helped export “multi-ton batches” of Ukrainian grain from occupied Ukrainian territories. The captain was not named, but described as a citizen of a South Caucasus country. In addition to the captain, there were 12 other crew members on board.

The security service said it found documents, navigation equipment and other material evidence of criminal activity during a search of the ship.

Based on the facts established, the captain was arrested on suspicion of violating the procedures for entering and leaving the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. If the charges are confirmed, he faces up to five years in prison. In accordance with the rules governing such criminal proceedings, the ship and the captain were towed to Odessa and arrested.