NIKA SPIRIT

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Tanker was used to supply fuel to the occupied Crimea

The "Nika Spirit" was used to supply fuel to the occupied Crimea, an investigation established. The municipal court of Kherson on Aug 13 handed down a ruling upon considering a motion filed by prosecutors and the SBU security service on seizing the vessel which was believed to have supplied fuel to certain units of Russia's Black Sea fleet. The court has dismissed the motion. The Prosecutor's Office for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea is preparing an appeal. Searches were conducted on the vessel in Kherson. The investigation claimed the vessel was used in "smuggling petroleum products" into the temporarily occupied territory Earlier, the SBU along with the Military Prosecutor's Office detained the Russian tanker "Neyma", which in Nov 2018 blocked Ukrainian naval vessels from passing the Kerch Strait before the Ukrainian boats were attacked and eventually seized by Russian forces. The investigation found the tanker which had sailed as "Mariya" and "Vilga" had been renamed into "Nika Spirit" to conceal the involvement of the vessel in said illegal actions, which led to the arrest by Russia of 24 Ukrainian sailors, who Ukraine stresses were being held as prisoners of war.

Court confirmed seizure

On July 30, an Odessa district court confirmed the seizure of the "Nika Spirit", as well as the documents that were confiscated when the vessel was registered. The court also approved the measures taken by military prosecutors and SBU investigators who registered the tanker in the port of Izmail, in the province of Odessa. Although it has been claimed that the investigation carried out by the Ukrainian security forces aboard the ship without the consent of the Russian consul was illegal, the Ukrainian prosecutor said those statements were inaccurate. Everything was done legally, emphasized the Ukrainian prosecutor, citing international treaties ratified by Russia and Ukraine. He noted that, in accordance with these agreements, Ukraine did not need the consent of diplomatic missions from other countries to register sea or river transport in Ukraine. The tanker was seized on July 24, when it entered the port of Izmail with a Russian flag. Investigators learned that the ship's owners had changed the name of "Neyma" to "Nika Spirit" after the Kerch Strait incident in November 2018, when the tanker was used to block the passage of Ukrainian military ships trying to enter the Azov Sea. Subsequently, Russia seized the three Ukrainian ships, describing Kiev's actions as a pre-election provocation. On November 25, 2018, Russian border guards seized three Ukrainian ships in the neutral waters of the Black Sea. The crews of the two artillery ships and a tug along with 24 people were taken to Simferopol, Crimea, where the Russian-controlled court detained all Ukrainians. The next day, the sailors were transferred to Moscow, where they remained until today. On May 25, the United Nations International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ruled that Russia must free all Ukrainian sailors and return all three ships. Russia has said it will not comply with the demands of the court. On the same day, a Moscow court rejected the appeals of Ukrainian prisoners of war and ordered them to remain in detention until the end of July. The actual "Nika Spirit" crew has not violated any maritime or Ukrainian law. As a result, all crew members were released and allowed to return to Krasnodar.

Crew of detained tanker repatriated

All crew members of the "Nika Spirit" which had been detained in the port of Izmail, have returned to Krasnodar, a representative of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), said. The press service of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on July 25 had announced the detention of the product tanker in the port, which according to the SBU claims had blocked the Ukrainian Navy's tug "Yany Kapu" as well as the gunboats "Berdyansk" and "Nikopol" ain the Kerch Strait in November 2018. It was reported later that the crew would fly to Russia from Moldova. The vessel remained in the port of Izmail. The SBU has not recorded any violations of maritime law or Ukrainian legislation by the crew members and therefore saw no reason to detain the sailors.