VOLGO-DON 205

The vessel has been implicated in grain theft schemes involving shipments from ports in the temporarily occupied territory (TOT) of Crimea, Ukraine, during which its Automatic Identification System (AIS) was disabled, followed by transshipment operations in the Kerch Strait area. It has violated the so-called "Crimean sanctions" by making port calls at closed Ukrainian ports in the TOT of Crimea, Ukraine. This activity forms part of a broader scheme to "legalise" stolen Ukrainian grain by redirecting it to third countries under the guise of grain of russian origin.
In June 2022, the russian-flagged vessel transported more than 12,000 tons of wheat and barley from the temporarily occupied closed port of Sevastopol for transshipment to the Port Kavkaz (russian federation).
The vessel has been seized by a Ukrainian court in the framework of criminal proceedings related to violations of the procedure for entry into and exit from the temporarily occupied territory.