Ukrainian border guards seized foreign vessel for entering Crimea
Border guards of the Odessa naval defense squad arrested a foreign vessel violator which entered the closed Crimean ports, the press service of the Ukrainian Border Guard Service (SBGS) announced on August 1.
The SAN PORFYRIOS motor ship was stopped by border guards in the Ukrainian waters of the Danube on its way from Romania to Greece. According to preliminary information, a vessel named Sava Lake (Panama Flag) with the same IMO (unique ship identification number) as that on the SAN PORFYRIOS (Belize Flag) repeatedly entered the temporarily closed ports of the annexed Crimea between 2014 and 2015.
“Despite the fact that the ship changed its flag and name, trying to confuse law enforcement authorities, the border guards carefully traced the ship’s course according to its IMO. The IMO remains fixed to the ship’s hull throughout its existence, regardless of changes in name, flag or owner,” the announcement states.
The first inspection of the vessel showed that the ship and navigation documentation were completely in order and that there were no notes on visits to Russian-annexed Crimean ports, but careful analysis of archive documentation revealed that on board there were ship documents logging numerous visits of the SAN PORFYRIOS to Crimean ports, the SBGS press service reported.
At the time the ship had a different captain, and the crew had changed several times. However, one of the captain’s mates had been to Crimean ports twice on the ship, and is thus a violator of Ukrainian legislation.
All the facts relating to the legal violations have been recorded, copies of supporting documents have been collected and will be sent to the Prosecutor General’s Office for assessment. The foreign citizen who violated legislation has been banned from entering Ukraine for 3 years.
In March 2017, a court in Odessa impounded the ship Sky Moon which was arrested after entering the Crimean port, the press service of the military prosecutor general’s office announced on March 16. The department stressed that this was the first time in the country’s history that such a decision had been made.
Crew members from the Sky Moon were banned from entering Ukraine for 3 years.
Since July 2014, the Ukrainian government has officially ceased the operation of all the ports of Russian-annexed Crimea, the peninsula’s harbors are closed to international maritime traffic.
In December 2014, European companies were prohibited from offering tourist services in the Crimea, and cruise ships were banned from entering the peninsula’s harbors. In May 2015 the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers officially excluded the Crimean ports from the list of ports open to foreign vessels.
Since the annexation, the SBGS has monitored 652 foreign vessels which violated Ukrainian legislation and entered the ports of the annexed Crimea. Owing to a change in Ukrainian legislation last year, the SBGS may detain such ships and their cargo.