The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced that it had detained a foreign ship in Odessa, which was part of the Russian shadow fleet and was illegally transporting Ukrainian agricultural products from the temporarily occupied Crimea. The message was published on the service's Telegram channel, BTA reported.
According to information from the investigation, the owner of the ship was sanctioned by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and, in order to circumvent restrictive measures, regularly changed the name of the ship, as well as the official beneficiaries from third countries, the message said.
SBU officers have discovered a Russian-controlled cargo ship in the commercial port of Odessa, where it arrived under the flag of an African country to export a batch of steel pipes. It was established that on the eve of the full-scale war, the ship docked in Sevastopol at least seven times to illegally export agricultural products in the interests of the Russian Federation, the SBU information specified. At the end of January 2021, the vessel illegally exported almost 7 thousand tons of grain from the Ukrainian peninsula to North Africa.
At the time of the detention of the ship, the captain and 16 other crew members were on board - all citizens of several countries from the Middle East, the SBU also informed. During a search of the ship, sailing plans, pilot charts, cartographic materials and radio communication check logs were found with evidence of illegal entry into the ports of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
SBU investigators have initiated criminal proceedings under four articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
- Part 3 of Art. 110-2 (financing of actions committed with the aim of forcibly changing or overthrowing the constitutional order or seizing state power, changing the borders of the territory or the state border of Ukraine);
- part 1 of art. 111 (treason);
- art. 291 (violation of the current rules in transport);
- parts 2, 3 of art. 332-1 (violation of the procedure for entering and leaving the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine).
According to materials from the Security Service, the ship was detained for further transfer to the National Agency of Ukraine for Identification, Search and Management of Assets Obtained from Corruption and Other Crimes.
The complex measures were carried out by SBU officers in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the Odessa region together with the State Border Service under the procedural guidance of the Prosecutor's Office in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.
Russian drones struck the gas transmission system in the southern Ukrainian Odessa region, a senior Ukrainian official said, Reuters reported. This area is home to several pipelines transporting liquefied natural gas from the United States to Ukraine via Greece, BTA reports.
Deputy Minister of Energy Mykola Kolisnyk did not specify which facility was hit. Data from the Ukrainian gas transit operator shows that the planned volumes under the so-called The Trans-Balkan route has remained largely unchanged.
"In the last 24 hours alone, we have seen the enemy carry out targeted strikes, especially in the Odessa region, including on the gas transmission system and gas transmission system facilities," Kolisnyk told Ukrainian television.
In recent months, Russia has significantly increased both the number and intensity of attacks on Ukrainian gas and energy infrastructure, targeting both gas production facilities and transmission systems, Reuters reports.
Kolisnyk also said that large-scale Russian attacks on electricity supplies had hampered electricity supplies, a day after the Ukrainian government announced additional restrictions on electricity consumption.
"The situation in the electricity system is complicated as a result of ongoing shelling, massive shelling of both the transmission system on all elements of the integrated electricity system, and and localized shelling", Kolisnyk said.
Ukrainians in many regions have been suffering from periodic power outages and emergency power cuts for weeks. Yesterday, electricity was cut off simultaneously for almost half the population of the capital, Kiev.
"While we are trying to cope and recover from one attack, the enemy is already launching a new one," Kolisnyk noted. Russian strikes on the natural gas production and supply sector have deprived Ukraine of more than half of its production volumes and forced it to seek additional imports of more than 4 billion cubic meters for the current winter season, the chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine said, Reuters reported.