Shelling and theft: the fate of foreign ships in Mariupol

Russian “liberators” appeared to the whole world as an army of murderers and looters. Representatives of the “authorities” of the captured territories of Ukraine, who imagined themselves as the owners of foreign fleets and ports, gained the same reputation.

Thus, in the occupied Mariupol, the russian-controlled terrorist group “DNR” seized two foreign ships – Smarta and Blue Star I. The invaders informed the ship owners that their ships are now “state property”, reports Reuters.

Blue Star I is a dry cargo ship under the flag of Panama, built in 2005, dead weight – 5245 tons. The ship’s manager, the Odesa-based company Fetida Maritime, declined to comment to Reuters and added that the Security Service of Ukraine has all the necessary information about the seizure of the ship.

Smarta is a bulk carrier under the flag of Liberia, built in 2007, deadweight – 15,800 tons. USM contacted Smarta Shipping Ltd, the vessel’s owning company. According to the company, the ship arrived in Mariupol on February 21 to load steel. On March 20, the ship was fired upon, as a result of which the ship’s navigation bridge was seriously damaged.

On April 9, the russian military forcibly removed 19 members of the Smarta crew to Donetsk, which is controlled by the self-proclaimed “DNR”. The sailors were released only a month later. The owners of the vessel requested permission to evacuate the vessel from Mariupol, but did not get any success.

Currently, the ship is controlled by a dozen bandits who broke into the ship without the permission of the shipowners. On June 30, the companies reported that “DNR” forcibly took the ship from “state ownership” without paying any compensation to the owner.

“As you understand, this “forced appropriation” without any compensation is illegal and contradicts to all norms of international law. Such actions pose a serious threat to shipping and safety at sea, because if every state were forced to take similar actions, by illegally assigning vessels with compulsory recourse to state ownership, it would be the same as  the law of the jungle,” says Smarta Shipping Ltd.

In addition to Smarta and Blue Star I, with the beginning of russia’s full-scale aggression in Ukraine, 4 more vessels were blocked in Mariupol. USM managed to find out their fate.

Azburg (flag — Dominica, built in 1995, deadweight — 9,085 tons) was completely burned after a direct attack on the ship by russian forces. The crew managed to evacuate on a pilot boat thanks to the help of “Azov”. The owner of the ship is the Turkish company Albros Shipping & Trading.

This company also owns the vessel Azov Concord under the flag of Malta (year of construction – 2008, dead weight – 8975 tons). The dry cargo was able to leave the port of Mariupol a little more than a week ago. The reason for such “luck” is simple: the owner has two passports – Turkish and russian.

The Lady Augusta vessel, under the flag of Jamaica, is owned by the Lebanese Adriamediteran Ltd. The dry cargo was built in 1998, deadweight — 6830 tons. The owners and crew are citizens of Syria, they recently received an invitation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of russian federation to send the crew and pick up the vessel.

The owners of Tzarevna (flag — Malta, year of construction — 2004, dead weight — 21,470 tons), the Bulgarian company Navibulgar, are still trying to fight for their ship, but it is not yet known whether the invaders will let it go and whether it will be able to safely leave the occupied territory.

The self-proclaimed “DNR” appropriates foreign vessels in Mariupol to create its own merchant fleet. The occupiers call this robbery “nationalization”.

The shadow of russia behind the “DNR” is obvious to many people. The purpose of seizing ships from their owners under the “laws” of the 1990s is not so much to provide terrorists with their own fleet, but to provide russia with additional vessels for the export of the stolen Ukrainian cargo. The occupiers have few dry cargoes of their own, which regularly transport hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of grain to Syria and Turkey. Russia needs a 24/7 flow of stolen goods for sale, while there is still time and money for the inevitable counteroffensive of the Armed Forces. That is why, in a greedy fever, rashists also steal other people’s ships, forgetting about the inevitable responsibility for all the crimes committed in Ukraine.