As previously reported by Bellingcat, two ships, the Mikhail Nenashev and Matros Shevchenko, sailed from occupied Sevastopol directly to Iran, seemingly holding stolen grain.

Bellingcat can now reveal that in recent months, the bulk cargo ships Zafar and Zaid have also joined the grain-plundering fleet, sailing under the Russian flag. Open source information allowed us to follow their voyages to Iran last year at every step.

The Zafar and Zaid turned off their AIS transponders near the Kerch Strait for several days. This is known as ‘going dark’ and is considered a deceptive shipping practice. Thus it can show that a vessel has something to hide.

We found satellite images showing the Zafar and the Zaid docked at a grain terminal in Sevastopol during their ‘dark periods’ when the AIS was turned off. Their hatches were open; it appears that they were loading grain.

Both ships transited the Bosphorus, where our co-author Yörük Işık photographed them apparently full of cargo:

AIS data then showed that the Zaid and Zafar docked at Bandar-e Emam Khomeini, a major port in Iran on the Persian Gulf. We also found satellite imagery of the Zafar at the port during this period. The same route was taken by Mikhail Nenashev and Matros Shevchenko in 2023.

The change in the ships’ draught indicates that they unloaded cargo at the Iranian port. The draught is the vertical distance from the waterline to the baseline; a change in the draught generally means a change in the ship’s weight and cargo.

Documents published by Ukrainian activist websites Myrotvorets indicate that both the Zafar and Zaid also shipped grain to Syria from occupied Sevastopol.

The certificates published by Myrotvorets name a Russian company called Pallada LLC as the exporter of “soft bread wheat in bulk” to Syria.

Bellingcat was able to verify the authenticity of these documents via the QR code included in the bottom right-hand corner, which links to a confirmation page on the website of a Russian state agricultural watchdog.

When the Zaid ‘went dark’ in the Black Sea around the time these voyages to Syria may have taken place, we looked to the Avlita terminal in satellite imagery and found it loading grain there. This date when the Rosselkhoznadzor document was issued coincides with this ‘AIS gap’.

The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office recently issued warrants for the captains of the Zaid and Zafar for illegal entry and exit to the harbours of occupied Crimea.

The appearance of more ships at the grain terminal shows simply that Russia “is stealing more”, Ukraine’s Prosecutor for Crimea told Bellingcat. He added that it is not feasible that the large quantities of grain being exported from Sevastopol originate from Crimea.

Indeed, surging shipments of grain from Crimea since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 potentially indicate the theft of grain from newly occupied Ukrainian territories. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-15/surging-crimea-shipments-point-to-stealing-of-ukrainian-grain

Find out what else we discovered with our partners Lloyds List and view all of our data by reading the full investigation here https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2024/04/23/from-crimea-to-iran-two-more-ships-join-russias-grain-smuggling-fleet/?utm_source=mstdn

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