Court allows ARMA to sell Russian tanker seized in Izmail

The Dniprovsky District Court of Kyiv has authorized the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) to seize the Russian tanker Nika Spirit.

This was reported by the ARMA press service.

Earlier, by a court decision, this asset was transferred to ARMA for management, but during the war, ARMA sees it expedient to focus on the sale of expensive seized assets, such as the Nika Spirit tanker, instead of finding managers.

The agency has already submitted relevant documents to law enforcement agencies and the National Security and Defense Council to change the mechanism of working with seized property. Instead of transferring individual assets to management, ARMA proposes to sell them through the Prozorro.Sale electronic auction system.

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.

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.

Also recently, 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.

In August, the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) also announced the selection of a manager for the confiscated dry cargo ship EMMAKRIS III. The vessel is moored at one of the berths in the port of Chornomorsk in Odesa region.

Earlier, ARMA sold the first seized asset - 1.2 thousand tons of grain were sold for UAH 4.9 million. This is the grain seized in Mykolaiv.

Кирило Бойко