Marine vessels

The vessel is involved in a scheme to theft grain from the TOT of Ukraine and export it to third countries (in particular, Turkey) through raid transshipment in the russian port of Kavkaz. For example, in 2022, almost 21,000 tonnes of wheat were stolen using the vessel ІМО 9296781, owned by the Kuban Maritime Company LLC. This bulk carrier was used to load grain in the port of Kavkaz from the vessels ІМО 8602957, ІМО 8611221, ІМО 8226428, which transported the stolen grain from the TOT of Crimea. In addition, grain stolen from the Ukrainian port of Berdiansk by the TOT in Zaporizhzhia region was loaded onto the bulk carrier ‘Krasnodar’.

The vessel is involved in a scheme to steal Ukrainian grain from the TOT of Ukraine by receiving grain from other vessels anchored in the Kerch Strait near the TOT of Crimea. The vessel attempted to transport the grain (barley) obtained in this way to the port of Samsun in Turkey. In April 2023, the Ukrainian Party requested the Turkish Party to arrest the vessel, take grain samples and interrogate the captain and crew. The vessel was not arrested and was not accepted in the Turkish port.

The vessel is involved in schemes of stealing Ukrainian grain from the TOT of Ukraine, in particular in 2024 from the temporarily occupied port of Berdiansk, Zaporizhzhia region. The vessel calls at the ports of the TOT of Ukraine (Berdiansk, Crimea, Komysh-Burun, Sevastopol).

The vessel is involved in multiple instances of the export of Ukrainian grain from the temporarily occupied port of Mariupol (temporarily occupied territory – TOT Ukraine). It was documented in russian propaganda footage from the TOT port of Mariupol during the loading of grain onto several russian-flagged vessels: STK-1003 (IMO 8326058), STK-1016 (IMO 8521880), and Mezhdurechensk (IMO 8948167). The vessel is owned by the russian company Remote Marine Terminal LLC (ООО "Удалённый морской терминал", TIN 7810707496). Grain was loaded onto these russian vessels by several entities: - Santrade LLC (formerly Sanagro LLC, ООО "Сантрейд", TIN 6168119060, Rostov-on-Don), a company engaged in the wholesale of grain, unprocessed tobacco, seeds, and animal feed. In 2023, the company was involved in loading Ukrainian wheat onto all three vessels. Its founder, M. Y. Mishchuk, is also the founder of three companies registered in the TOT of Donetsk region that trade agricultural commodities (primarily grain): AF Agroservice LLC (ООО "АФ Агросервис", TIN 9306001978), Aleksandrovskoye LLC (ООО "Александровское", TIN 9312009862), and Donagroalliance LLC (ООО "Донагроальянс", TIN 9309020224), as well as a metallurgical company – Donetsk Foundry Plant LLC (ООО "Донецкий литейный завод", TIN 9308024353); - Zorka Food LLC (ООО "Зорка Фуд", TIN 9721152398, Moscow), which specializes in the wholesale of food, grain, and related products; - Asta Group LLC (ООО "Аста Групп", TIN 9303017257, TOT Donetsk), also specializing in the wholesale of grain, unprocessed tobacco, seeds, and animal feed. Its founder, R. N. Asatryan, owns Agro-Soyuz Farming Enterprise LLC (КФХ "Агро-Союз", TIN 9500011198, TOT Kherson region), engaged in the cultivation of cereals (excluding rice), legumes, and oilseeds, as well as Complex Supply Don LLC (ООО "Комплексное снабжение Дон", TIN 6166085722, Rostov-on-Don), which manufactures vehicle bodies and conducts non-specialized trade.

The vessel has been implicated in grain theft schemes involving the Avlita grain terminal in the temporarily occupied Sevastopol (temporarily occupied territory – TOT of Crimea, Ukraine) in July and August 2022, with the stolen grain transshipped to the russian Port Kavkaz, as well as from the port of Kerch (TOT of Crimea, Ukraine). A Ukrainian court served the vessel’s captain with a notice of suspicion. The captain made seven port calls at the closed commercial seaports of Sevastopol and Kerch (TOT of Crimea, Ukraine) to load looted Ukrainian grain, periodically disabling the Automatic Identification System (AIS) and entering false course data to indicate alleged voyages to russian ports rather than to the closed ports of TOT of Crimea, Ukraine. The Turkish agricultural company Bek Tarim, the russian company Fast LLC (ООО "Фаст", TIN 2376000774), and Petrokhleb-Kuban LLC (ООО "Петрохлеб-Кубань", TIN 2310109650) have been involved in the vessel’s grain export activities. The vessel is managed by Kuban Marine Company LLC (ООО "Кубанская морская компания", TIN 2310213041), a russian company affiliated with Petrokhleb-Kuban LLC. Kuban Marine Company LLC operates three other vessels engaged in illegal voyages to closed ports of TOT of Crimea, Ukraine. The vessel has also been involved in smuggling ilmenite—while AIS was disabled—for the Crimean Titan (АО "Крымский титан") plant, seized in TOT of Crimea, Ukraine, through ship-to-ship (STS) transfers in the Black Sea for delivery to the port of Kerch (TOT of Crimea, Ukraine). The vessel has been in violation of Ukrainian legislation and the so-called "Crimean sanctions" since 2015, having made numerous port calls at Kerch (TOT of Crimea, Ukraine) since that year, including for raid transshipments in the Kerch Strait.

The vessel is involved in the scheme of stealing and exporting Ukrainian grain from the temporarily occupied Crimea to Turkey by reloading in a russian port the stolen Ukrainian grain previously exported from the TOT Crimea by the ‘Akubens’ vessel (IMO 8891364). The ‘Sword Lion’ arrived in the Kerch Strait with a draft of 6 metres from the Turkish port of Karadeniz Ereğli on 02 July 2023, stayed there until 27 July 2023, after which, having changed the draft to 9.6 metres, it proceeded to the outer harbour of the port of Haifa. The recipient of the agricultural products loaded onto the vessel was the Israeli company ADM Industries Centers ltd (Beit Dagan). According to the official data of this company, the ‘Sword Lion’ vessel delivered a cargo of barley with the status of origin as European, which was not true. The vessel arrived at the outer roadstead of the port of Haifa on 03 August 2023, but did not enter the port. This was likely due to the disclosure of the scheme to steal Ukrainian grain. From 09 to 10 August 2023, the vessel sailed to the coast of Cyprus and entered the outer roads of the port of Famagusta, where it stayed until 15 August 2023 without calling at the port, probably for the same reasons. After that, the vessel moved to the roadstead of the Turkish port of Iskanderun, where, after waiting for six days with AIS turned off, it entered the port and unloaded grain at the berth of a subsidiary of the russian Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant.

The vessel has been implicated in grain theft schemes involving the export of Ukrainian grain from the ports of Sevastopol and Kerch (temporarily occupied territory – TOT of Crimea, Ukraine), with its AIS (Automatic Identification System) signal disabled, and in its further export, including to the russian Port Kavkaz for transshipment, the Turkish port of Samsun, and from the temporarily occupied port of Berdiansk in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. In 2019– 2020, the vessel was also involved in schemes to deliver Ukrainian ilmenite concentrate to TOT of Crimea, Ukraine for the Ukrainian titanium plant Krymskiy Titan, which was seized by russia. The concentrate was shipped from Odesa (Ukraine) to Turkey, where it was transshipped onto a vessel that delivered it, with its AIS signal disabled, to the port of Komysh-Burun (TOT of Crimea, Ukraine).

The vessel has been implicated in grain theft schemes involving the removal of Ukrainian grain from the ports of Sevastopol, Feodosia, and Kerch (temporarily occupied territory – TOT of Crimea, Ukraine) with the Automatic Identification System (AIS) disabled, and its subsequent delivery to Turkey and the russian Port Kavkaz. In particular, between 4 and 6 January 2024, the vessel loaded 3,000 tons of wheat at a grain terminal in temporarily occupied Sevastopol and then delivered it to the anchorage of Port Kavkaz for a bulk carrier bound for Indonesia. The vessel has also been involved in the delivery of Turkish construction mixtures to TOT of Crimea, Ukraine. A Ukrainian court has served a notice of suspicion to the vessel’s captain and ordered the arrest of the vessel in absentia. On 18– 19 June 2025, the vessel was moored at berth 21 of the Avlita grain terminal in Sevastopol Bay. On 19 June 2025, the vessel departed from the port of Sevastopol, Sevastopol Bay.

It is allegedly involved in a scheme to steal Ukrainian grain from the TOT of Ukraine. Between 22 and 26 September 2023, after approaching the Kerch Strait in the Black Sea, the vessel switched off its AIS transponder and continued to move towards the Sea of Azov, where it docked with the vessel IMO 8326058 to load grain of Ukrainian origin, which had been exported from the temporarily occupied port of Mariupol. After that, the vessel ІМО 9085443 proceeded to deliver the grain to the port of Tripoli (Lebanon). At the same time, there are signs of links between this vessel and russian/related entities through the management of the vessel. The commercial manager of the vessel ІМО 9085443 is Romarine Europe Ltd, a company registered in Liberia, with an office in Greece at the following address: 1st Floor, 11, Agiou Spyridonos Street, 185 35, Piraeus. At the same time, this company also operates another vessel, IMO 8418356, which has repeatedly called at the seaports of the TOT of Crimea in violation of Ukrainian legislation. In particular, in August 2019, the vessel IMO 8418356 was moored at the grain terminal of the stevedoring company ‘Avlita’ in the closed port of Sevastopol, where the vessel was loaded, and subsequently sailed to Libya. The vessel IMO 8418356 was also involved in the export of grain from the port of Sevastopol (TOT Crimea) to Syria with the AIS signal switched off, the delivery of ilmenite to the port of Feodosia (TOT Crimea), and the export of grain from the ports of Kerch and Sevastopol to Greece.

The vessel is involved in the transportation of Ukrainian coal and grain from the TOT of Ukraine, calls at the ports of the TOT of Ukraine, in particular, on June 04, 2024, the vessel was in the temporarily occupied closed port of Sevastopol, during which the AIS system was turned off. During 2024-2025, the vessel shipped, in particular, to Turkey, more than 20 thousand tons of coking coal from the temporarily occupied Ukrainian port of Mariupol, using the following scheme: officially calls at the russian port of Temryuk; turns off the automatic identification system (AIS); sails to the port of Mariupol for loading; returns to Temryuk with the cargo; turns on the AIS; sails to the port of destination. The vessel is owned and operated by Nika Shipping LLC (TIN: 9303032939), a company established under russian law in April 2023 and registered with the TOT of Donetsk region (Donetsk) at the same address as another russian company, Nika Trade Invest LLC (TIN: 9303023317). In 2025, Nika Shipping LLC was re-registered at an address in Moscow. Nika Trade Invest LLC specializes in the extraction of minerals and coal, coal preparation. Information about the director and founders of Nika Trade Invest LLC is not disclosed, which may indicate that they are involved in the fulfillment of the russian state defense order. It is noteworthy that by the end of 2024, Nika Trade Invest LLC's revenue increased by almost 80% to RUB 1.6 billion. In March 2024, Nika Trade Invest LLC became a member of the free economic zone of the russian federation as a kaolin enrichment company. It was given a rather unique field called "Bila Balka" near the temporarily occupied Volnovakha. At the same time, Nika Trade Invest LLC is affiliated with Lyudmila Gurova (TIN 616103297808), who is the majority beneficiary of another russian company, Roboavia LLC (TIN 9102166435, under Ukrainian sanctions), which develops and manufactures UAVs in the Rostov region of the russian federation. In 2023, Roboavia LLC entered into an agreement with the Rostov authorities to implement an investment project. The company is building a plant in the city and plans to produce 1,100 drones per year. In September 2023, Roboavia LLC also became a resident of the Era Military Innovation Complex, a project of the russian Ministry of Defense to develop the latest weapons. The technical management of the vessel is carried out by the russian company Krechet LLC (Rostov region, TIN: 6167197524). The former director of Krechet LLC is Oleksandr Soldatov (TIN 614104187473), the current director (since July 27, 2023) of the occupation Administration of the Mariupol Seaport (TIN 9310000303). Krechet LLC manages three other vessels (IMO 1041348, IMO 9419084, IMO 9454125) involved in the export of Ukrainian coal from the temporarily occupied Mariupol.

The vessel is involved in the theft of Ukrainian grain from the TOT of Ukraine (from the ports of Sevastopol and Berdiansk) and its transportation to third countries. On 23 April 2024, the vessel switched off its AIS off the Turkish coast, and entered the temporarily occupied Sevastopol on 25 April 2024, where it was moored at berth 20. On 29 April 2024, the vessel was moved to berth 21 for loading at the Avlita grain terminal (listed in russian registers as Aval). ‘Sofia' left the port of Sevastopol loaded with wheat on 02 May 2024, according to the documents, the grain was registered for delivery to Bangladesh, the port of destination was indicated as Caucasus in the schedule of movement through the closed port of Sevastopol, the ship's captain was Sergey Ryzhov. The vessel also made three calls to the closed port of Sevastopol in July 2024 with the AIS switched off, loading and exporting more than 18,000 tonnes of barley from the TOT of Crimea. On November 18, 2024, the vessel was in Sevastopol Bay, moored to the port side to the bulk carrier Neptune at berth 20 of Dokova Bay. On November 26, 2024, the vessel was moved to berth 19. In May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December 2024, the vessel was involved in the transportation of barley and wheat from the temporarily occupied port of Berdiansk in Zaporizhzhia region, in particular to Egypt and Libya. In January 2025, the vessel called at the port of Sevastopol three times (21 berths of the Avlita grain terminal) and departed loaded with wheat. In February and March 2025, the vessel was involved in the transportation of grain from the temporarily occupied port of Berdiansk, Zaporizhzhia region. On April 02-09, 2025, the vessel was in Sevastopol Bay on loading wheat at berth 21 of the Avlita grain terminal. In the period of April 16-18, 2025, the vessel was in Sevastopol Bay on loading wheat at berth 21 of the Avlita grain terminal with AIS turned off. On April 18, the vessel left Sevastopol Bay and sailed to the port of Kavkaz loaded with wheat. On June 08-13, 2025, the vessel was in Sevastopol Bay, Dokova Bay, to load grain. On June 13, 2025, the vessel left Sevastopol Bay loaded with wheat and sailed to the port of Kerch. On June 16-18, 22-25, 2025, the vessel was in Sevastopol Bay for loading grain at berth 21 of the Avlita grain terminal. On June 18 and 25, 2025, respectively, the vessel left Sevastopol Bay loaded with wheat.

The vessel has been implicated in grain theft schemes involving the export of Ukrainian grainfrom ports in the temporarily occupied territory (TOT) of Crimea (Ukraine), with its Automatic Identification System (AIS) disabled. In particular, in December 2023, the vessel transported Ukrainian grain from the temporarily occupied port of Berdiansk, Zaporizhzhia region. Between 22– 23 March and 2– 5 April 2024, the vessel was present in the port of Sevastopol with AIS disabled. On 23 March 2024, the vessel departed Sevastopol loaded with wheat, declaring the Port Kavkaz (russia) as its destination. On 5 April 2024, it again departed Sevastopol with wheat on board. Since 2022, the vessel has also been operating on the Bronka– Kaliningrad ferry route, connecting the Leningrad and Kaliningrad regions of russia.