ARMA Auctions Seized Nika Spirit Vessel for ₴6.43M in Odesa

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

The relevant announcement was published in the Prozorro.Sale system.

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.

On November 4, 2024, the Dniprovsky District Court of Kyiv authorized the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) to seize the Russian tanker Nika Spirit.

The Nika Spirit tanker (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.

The tanker allegedly ran aground under the arch of the Kerch Bridge during the events of November 25, 2018, when the Ukrainian ships Berdiansk and Nikopol and the raid tug Yany Kapu were making a planned passage from the port of Odesa to the port of Mariupol in the Sea of Azov and were attacked by Russian warships, resulting in the capture of Ukrainian sailors.

At the same time, the USKO MFU, a Cameroon-flagged bulk carrier, was confiscated in Odesa region. The reason was illegal entry into the ports of the temporarily occupied Crimea. The court decided to transfer it to state ownership.

Кирило Бойко