Currently the Unified Register of Judgments of Ukraine contains the full text of the court prescript onSeptember 10, 2020 regarding the Crimean ship, tanker “NIKA SPIRIT”. According to this final andnon-appellate decision of the investigating judge of the Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv, incriminal proceedings 42018160690000284, initiated in 2018, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)was allowed to transfer specified vessel to the Assets Recovery and Management Agency of Ukraine(ARMA).
This court decision applies to some important events, happened on the peninsula. This criminalproceeding was initiated by the Military Prosecutor’s Office of the Southern Region of Ukraine on thefact of Russian occupation forces’ illegal actions on the blockade in November 2018 the transportcommunication – the Maritime Shipping Kerch-Yenikale Canal in the Kerch Strait of the Sea of Azovand on the fact of next Russian attack on the Ukrainian Navy military boats.
As a result of that illegal blockade of the Canal, the military boats’ group of the Ukrainian ArmedForces’ Navy, consisting of small artillery boats “Berdyansk”, “Nikopol”, and of tug “Yani Kapu”, whichwas going from Odessa to Mariupol, could not pass through the Kerch Strait, returned back and wascaptured by the Russians in the waters of the Black Sea.
Initially, the pre-trial investigation in this case was entrusted to the investigators of the SBU Office inOdessa Region, and in March 2020 the case was transferred to the Main Investigation Department ofthe SBU.
Regarding to the available court decisions, the investigation has already established that on November25, 2018, the tanker “Neyma” with the help of tugs “Fast”, “Handwick” and “Eltigen” blocked thetransport communication – the Maritime Shipping Kerch-Yenikale Canal in the Kerch Strait byarrangement the artificial obstacles. As the result of this blockade, among other things, material lossesin the amount of more than 260 million of Ukrainian hryvnas were caused.
This tanker “Neyma” was placed for a long time in the Kerch Shipyard and together withabovementioned tugs was actually operated by LLC “YUVAS TRANS”, registered in the Crimea in thecity of Kerch, st. Kirova, house 22, building 1, office 1. These vessels were used by the Russianauthorities to block the Kerch Strait with the consent of the Narodytsky family, as the actual owner ofthe group of companies LLC “YUVAS TRANS”. Our site wrote in a journalistic investigation “Bandits arethe Servants of the Bandits” regarding this company.
During the mentioned criminal investigation, the Ukrainian authorities established that the tanker“Nika Spirit”, IMO number 8895528, MMSI 273347000, Russian-flagged, owned by the LLC “AltomarShipping”, registered in the Krasnodar Region (Russia), Gelenzhik city, st. Telmana, house 47A, is thesame tanker “Neyma”.
Therefore, despite the disguise measures taken, on July 29, 2019, executing the decision of theinvestigating judge of the Primorsky District Court of Odessa, this tanker “Neyma” was detained bythe Ukrainian authorities on the Danube river as the instrument of crime, exactly of the blockade ofthe Kerch-Yenikale Canal in 2018. Two-year lawyers’ attempts to lift the arrested tanker wereunsuccessful.
Currently, the Crimean tanker “Neyma” (“Nika Spirit”) will be sold by the Ukrainian authorities throughthe ARMA mechanisms as the arrested instrument of crime.
