Another seized Russian vessel handed over to ARMA for sale

The Dniprovskyi District Court of Kyiv has handed over to the National Agency of Ukraine for finding, tracing and management of assets derived from corruption and other crimes (ARMA) a Russian-linked vessel detained in the Danube River.

This was reported by the ARMA press service.

This is the ANKA bulk carrier, arrested by court order in April 2025 after the Security Service of Ukraine detained it on suspicion of being used by Russia to steal Ukrainian agricultural products from the temporarily occupied regions of Ukraine.

According to investigators, the arrested vessel was part of Russia's shadow fleet, which the Kremlin uses to sell looted Ukrainian grain to third countries. According to the case file, at the end of 2024, the bulk carrier transported 5,000 tons of wheat from the port of Sevastopol, which was stolen in the temporarily occupied territory of southern Ukraine. The ANKA bulk carrier was flying the flag of Tanzania. Previously, it was called Victoria. The vessel left the Moldovan port in the spring and was heading to the Turkish port of Gömlık. Currently, the location of the bulk carrier is on the Danube near Reni.

Earlier, the National Agency of Ukraine for Finding, Tracing and Management of Assets Derived from Corruption and Other Crimes (ARMA) held an auction for the sale of the Nika Spirit vessel arrested in Izmail, Odesa region.

Four limited liability companies took part in the auction: "Alfa Group 77, Inter Metcom, Mettrans Service, and Good Group. The winner was Alfa Group 77 LLC. The company offered UAH 6 million 425 thousand. According to the YouControl service, Alfa Group 77 LLC was registered in 2016 in Kremenchuk, Poltava region. The owner is Vitaliy Marchenko.

The tanker Nika Spirit (formerly known as Neyma) was detained on July 24, 2019, in the port of Izmail. According to the international information system Equasis, the vessel was identified as the one used to block the Kerch Strait in November 2018.

Кирило Бойко