You're reading: Border guards detain ship that took people to Russian-occupied Crimea illegally

Ukrainian border guards in Odesa Oblast on June 8 seized the Bospor, a vegetable oil tanker sailing under the Moldavian flag, which they said had been illegally transporting people to Russian-occupied Crimea.

“The vessel was illegally transferring sailors from Odesa and Kherson oblasts to the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula,” reads a message published on the State Border Guards Service of Ukraine’s website on June 9.

The police have already launched a criminal investigation on suspicion that the Bospor’s crew are involved in an organized criminal gang.

The Border Guards Service press service reported that from 2015 to 2017, the Bospor’s crew used the cargo vessel to secretly transport Ukrainian sailors through Ukrainian checkpoints to the territory of Russian-occupied Crimea.

Over two years, the Bospor shipped about 100 citizens from Kherson and Odesa oblasts to Crimea, the border guard’s message reads.

“The crew was transferring sailors to Crimea because several crewing companies illegally operating there have been offering contracts and employment for sailors on international vessels there,” border guard spokesman Oleh Slobodyan told the Kyiv Post on June 9.

He said that despite international sanctions against Russia having closed Crimea’s ports to international cargo and cruise vessels in 2015, many shipping and crewing companies have been violating the ban.

Armed officers of the Border Guard Service of Ukraine guard the deck of the Bospor vessel, detained in Odesa Oblast on June 8. (Courtesy of  dpsu.gov.ua)

Armed officers of the Border Guard Service of Ukraine guard the deck of the Bospor vessel, detained in Odesa Oblast on June 8. (Courtesy of dpsu.gov.ua)