Ukraine has called on port state control to detain ships with Russian flags or class documents that were issued by offices in areas occupied by Moscow’s forces.
It has identified more than 130 vessels it says were unlawfully registered in Crimea since 2014, when troops occupied the region and held sham referendums to support the takeover.
In a submission to the International Maritime Organization, Ukraine said Moscow was likely to attempt the “same illegal practices” in areas under occupation following the invasion from February last year.
It said port state control should consider flag, class and other documents issued by Russian authorities in those areas as “fraudulent” and “appropriate procedural measures should be taken regarding the vessel in terms of its detention”.
The move follows a similar appeal at an IMO committee when Ukraine called for ships to be detained until seafarers with papers issued from occupied areas were removed and replaced.
That move was backed by the overwhelming majority of delegations that spoke at the IMO’s maritime safety committee last week.
The committee said member states should take “resolute steps” to denounce Russia’s moves to issue seafarer documents and called for port and flag states to take “appropriate action” if they discovered them.
The latest move to target ships will be discussed next month at another IMO sub-committee. A paper issued by Ukraine said it told the IMO in 2020 of 134 vessels that had been “unlawfully registered in Crimea” under the flag of Russia since 2014.
It said that in 2014 Russia’s register of shipping established a branch in Sevastopol and a survey station in the city of Kerch, which are both under Russian military control.
It said there were grounds to believe that Russia would carry out similar practices, given statements by the Russian authorities about nationalising some vessels under the flag of Ukraine and other states that were blocked in ports by the invasion, according to the submission.
TradeWinds has reported how Russia’s separatist administration in the occupied Donetsk region has moved to confiscate vessels trapped in the Black Sea port of Mariupol.
Russia has not responded to the most recent submission. But it previously claimed that all seafarer certificates were “fully valid” and any attempts to replace crew members would “humiliate the dignity” of one group of seafarers.
The United Nations General Assembly has condemned the illegal annexation of Crimea and the invasion of Ukraine.
