Bellingcat tracked more than a hundred ghost ships in the port of Sevastopol

Bellingcat investigators tracked more than 100 vessels loading in the port of Sevastopol with AIS turned off using satellite images.

In recent years, the “Avlita” grain terminal in the Sevastopol port of the occupied Crimea has allegedly been almost non-functional – at least, according to data from ship monitoring services.

However, Bellingcat journalists turned to satellite image services and received data showing that ships are actively being loaded with grain at the terminal. You can look at the “map” of ships by following the link.

Only in the first year of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, at least 179 days there were ships loading grain for export at the terminal. Vessels were in port with AIS turned off.

According to the journalist of “Peacemaker” Kateryna Yaresko, after reports in the media about ghost ships being loaded in Crimea, many countries began to refuse to accept grain, which probably comes from the occupied peninsula. However, a number of ships still send cargo, for example, to Syria.

Also, transshipment of grain by the STS method, when the cargo is moved at sea from one ship to another, remains an urgent problem. This helps the Russians to hide the true origin of the grain from buyers.