Kyiv detained a ship it says was part of Moscow’s “shadow fleet” which illegally exports grain from areas of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces.

A dry cargo ship was detained in Ukrainian territorial waters as it headed from Moldova along the River Danube and into the Black Sea, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine said on its website Friday. Investigators did not specify the cargo nor name the ship, which Ukraine’s security services said had sailed under the flag of an Asian nation.

The ship was illegally loaded in Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea in late 2024 with more than 4,600 tons of grain from occupied areas of southern Ukraine, investigators said. According to documents seized on board, the grain was to be exported to third countries.

Following Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, Ukraine formally closed all ports on the peninsula, which Moscow continued to use for clandestine exports. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, it occupied adjacent parts of southern Ukraine. Kyiv has accused Moscow of illegally exporting grain from these largely agricultural areas.

The term “shadow fleet” usually refers to the vast number of aging vessels which Moscow assembled to circumvent curbs on its oil exports, a small number of which have sailed without any known insurance. According to Kyiv, Moscow has used similar tactics to obscure the origin of stolen Ukrainian grain.

The US is willing to recognize Russia’s control over Crimea as part of a deal as US President Donald Trump seeks to deliver on his promise to bring a quick end to the war in Ukraine, Bloomberg News previously reported.

Copyright 2025 Bloomberg.

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