Spain blocked Russia's attempts to seize Ukrainian ships in the Mediterranean

The value of the property is over $10 million.

The Security Service of Ukraine and law enforcement officers of Spain blocked the attempts of the Russian Federation to take possession of Ukrainian ships in the Mediterranean Sea.

This was reported by the press center of the SBU. “The security service, together with the law enforcement agencies of the Kingdom of Spain, prevented Russia’s attempts to appropriate the property of the state-owned water transport enterprise of Ukraine,” the message says.

In particular, the management of a sub-sanctioned company from the Russian Federation tried to take possession of two Ukrainian industrial ships located on the territory of the Spanish port. The total cost of the vessels is more than $10 million.

As noted, in order to implement the deal, representatives of the Russian Federation “agreed” with officials of the Ukrainian state enterprise on the lease of watercraft by an affiliated business structure controlled from Russia.

Then the participants in the scheme created artificial conditions for the transfer of the ships to a Russian company, allegedly in return for paying off a debt in the form of seized assets in Ukraine.

“However, SBU officers, together with Western partners, promptly exposed the criminal mechanism, identified the persons involved in its organization, and blocked the illegal transfer of Ukrainian property. Based on the materials of the Security Service, the court seized the ships,” the SBU reports.

After carrying out investigative and operational actions, they will be returned to the property of Ukraine.

As part of the criminal proceedings initiated under Art. 111-2 of the Criminal Code (“complicity with the aggressor state”), the issue is resolved regarding the notification of suspicion to officials of the state enterprise and their accomplices involved in the transaction. Malefactors face punishment up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.

Detention of traitors of Ukraine

In Ukraine, including in the territories liberated from the Russians, traitors to Ukraine are regularly detained. In particular, in January, a former employee of the disbanded traffic police was detained in Kherson . According to the SBU, after the capture of the city, he voluntarily agreed to cooperate and received a “position” in the local occupation police.

Earlier, the SBU detained a former Berkut soldier who supported the invaders at the beginning of a full-scale invasion. On his own initiative, he began to collect information about the deployment and movement of units of the Defense Forces in the areas of the cities of Gornyak and Krasnogorovka.

(C)UNIAN 2023