A year ago, several media, including “Britpanorama”, published investigations into the illicit activities of crewing agencies in Russian-occupied Crimea. Among other things, the material discussed a firm called “Tenet Marine Company Ltd,” which operated in Yalta. The company claimed to have ties to Greek and Cypriot shipowners and promised employment with American, Belgian, Greek, and Latvian firms.
Tenet also claimed to handle operations for tankers, specifically those with IMO numbers 9486908, 9402263, 9340374, 9371270, 9175212, and 9216547, some of which sailed under the Greek flag.
While the entity did not provide specific details regarding the offices in Greece and Cyprus mentioned on its website, it appeared in Russian registries under the number 9103071225. Olga Khvorost was listed as the “owner,” and Andrey Dukhno as the “director,” with a reported turnover of 2.6 million rubles for 2024.
Investigations have shown that, in occupied Crimea, the core of local crewing agencies was largely established prior to the occupation; subsequently, the “commercial pathways” for many of these firms shifted significantly.
Based on this investigation, our Association notified international authorities, pointing out that sanctions imposed by the EU, the U.S., and other nations prohibit commercial activity across many economic sectors in occupied Crimea. In the context of crewing services, this specifically includes a ban on the financial transactions necessary for such operations to exist.
We noted that Crimean crewing agencies sustain themselves either at the expense of the seafarers, a fundamental violation of the Maritime Labour Convention, or through the Russian maritime business sector, most notably, the shadow tanker fleet.
These crewing agencies exploit the fact that Russian maritime unions do not file complaints, while Crimean seafarers, living under occupation, understandably dare not reach out to international authorities on their own.
Now, on October 23, “Sonarrow” OSINT researchers have released a detailed investigation into the activities of the Greek entity “Tenet Marine Hellas” and its connections to Novorossiysk, Crimea, and Odesa.
The report states that, through the offices of this entity, a number of seafarers were placed on board sanctioned tankers—specifically, vessels listed by the EU, such as the “Endless”, IMO 9315446, “Blue”, IMO 9236353, “Sun”, IMO 9293117, and “Tsitrin”, IMO 9437983, as well as vessels subject to Ukrainian sanctions, the “In”, IMO 9235892 and “Acers”, IMO 9301902. It was also noted that similar instances occurred prior to 2024; for example, two second engineers, one from Odesa and one from Crimea, were placed on the sanctioned tanker “Fotuo”, IMO 9293959, through “Tenet”.
The researchers demonstrated that the Greek firm “Tenet Marine Hellas” lists offices in both Odesa and Novorossiysk on the “Maritime-Union” platform. Furthermore, the Odesa-based entity “Tenet Maritime Company” shares the same founders as its Yalta-based counterpart, namely, the aforementioned Olga Khvorost and Andrey Dukhno, Khvorost is also a founder of the Greek firm “Tenet”; both individuals are also linked to “Tenet Marine Kypros.”
In Greek records, these individuals identify themselves as Ukrainians, yet they obtained Russian “passports” in Crimea prior to 2022, and in 2022, they acquired new Russian international travel passports in Moscow.
OSINT researchers note that between 2016 and 2023, Khvorost made over 40 trips between Moscow, Athens, and Larnaca, traveling primarily via Istanbul since 2021.
Although Greek Law 5232/2025 establishes criminal liability for circumventing sanctions, this does not appear to concern these operators or their patrons in Athens. They make no effort to conceal their activities, frequently appearing at various conferences focused on the employment of seafarers. Furthermore, there is no indication that Ukrainian authorities have taken any action regarding the Odesa office of this network, a network that continues to thrive regardless of the circumstances.
It should be noted that we have previously documented similar cases involving other global crew-management companies that operate simultaneously in Odesa, Crimea, and Novorossiysk, providing services to the aggressor’s tanker fleet; unfortunately, the situation in this sector has remained largely unchanged over the past year.
