KYIV
\nKyiv said Thursday that it had seized a foreign cargo ship and detained its captain, alleging that the vessel had illegally exported Ukrainian grain from the annexed Crimean peninsula.
\nSince Russia\u2019s capture of swaths of agricultural land in Ukraine in early 2022, Kyiv has accused Moscow of illegally harvesting and shipping grain produced on occupied territory to third countries.
\nThe Ukrainian prosecutor general\u2019s office said it had \u201cseized\u201d a foreign vessel in the Odesa region that had earlier exported agricultural products via the Crimean port of Sevastopol \u2014 a key military hub for Russia in the Black Sea.
\nThe Security Services of Ukraine (SBU) said in a separate statement that it had detained the ship\u2019s captain, accusing him of violating rules on entering occupied territory.
\nIt also claimed that the grain exported by the vessel \u2014 Usko Mfu \u2014 had been produced in southern Ukraine.
\nThe charges carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison, the SBU said, while prosecutors identified the captain as a citizen of Azerbaijan, an ex-Soviet country in the South Caucasus.
\nProsecutors said 12 other foreign crew members were also on board at the time of the vessel\u2019s seizure, without elaborating on their nationality or whether they too would face charges.
\nThe Cameroonian-flagged vessel illegally docked at Sevastopol in November 2023 and was loaded with more than 3,000 tons of agricultural products \u201cintended for a Turkish company,\u201d prosecutors said.
\n\u201cTo conceal the illegal activity, the ship\u2019s Automatic Identification System (AIS) was turned off before entering the port of Sevastopol, which is a gross violation of maritime safety requirements,\u201d their statement added.
\nProsecutors said the ship returned to Sevastopol a second time in May this year.
\nIt was seized at the Ukrainian port of Reni, they added, where they discovered documents issued by Sevastopol port authorities.
\nIgor Delanoe \u2014 deputy director of the Franco-Russian Observatory \u2014 said this was the first time Ukraine had seized an internationally-flagged vessel over the shipments.
\n\u201cThe signal is that they want to make third countries face up to their responsibilities,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cFrom the Ukrainian point of view, these countries are supporting Russia by their silence, while at the same time benefiting from grain that Ukrainians consider stolen,\u201d he added.
\nThe European Union in May imposed \u201cprohibitive\u201d duties on grain imports from Russia in a bid to cut off revenues to Moscow for its war on Ukraine.
\nThe bloc\u2019s trade commissioner said the measure would \u201ctackle illegal Russian exports of stolen Ukraine grain into EU markets.\u201d
\nThe head of Ukraine\u2019s southern Kherson region, which the Kremlin claims is part of Russia, said Thursday that Russian forces caused fires on dozens of hectares of Ukrainian land growing grain.
\nHe also said that Russian forces had struck a grain storage facility in the region and attacked firefighters who arrived to extinguish the fire with drones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KYIV Kyiv said Thursday that it had seized a foreign cargo ship and detained its captain, alleging that the vessel had illegally exported Ukrainian grain from the annexed Crimean peninsula. Since Russia\u2019s capture of swaths of agricultural land in Ukraine in early 2022, Kyiv has accused Moscow of illegally harvesting and shipping grain produced on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417947,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-417921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n