Nika Spirit Tanker Auction Set for April 21 with Starting Price ₴2M

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

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

The auction is scheduled for April 21 with a starting price of UAH 2 million 438.5 thousand. The vessel is actually a tanker for the transportation of oil products. It was built in 1989. The functional wear and tear is 80%.

On November 4, 2024, the Dniprovsky District Court of Kyiv allowed 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.

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