The FOM: On one-way voyage with cargo from Turkey to occupied Sevastopol

Despite the ban imposed by the Turkish authorities on maritime traffic bound for occupied ports in the Crimean Peninsula and outbound ships calling at Turkish ports, there are still those business people, who won’t change their old ways of dealings. We collect evidence of vessels illegally calling at Crimean ports in a hope that it will be compelling enough to cause decisive actions against those, who infringe on Ukraine’s sovereignty. These illegal vessel calls are not only about violating the rights of our country. There is more to it. When a vessel arrives in Turkey or in port of any other civilized state on its return voyage from Crimea and presents documents certified by the occupation authorities that have annexed the Ukrainian peninsula, it exposes the country’s government, which is responsible for the situation at its ports, areas and regions of under its control, to a challenging situation.

If fact, we can see such a perpetrator right now – it is the FOM (IMO: 8100624, MMSI: 352264000, Call Sign: HP2793, Flag: Panama) that arrived near Sevastopol in the morning on April 3, 2017 with the cargo of ca 2000 tonnes of building mixes on a direct voyage from the Turkish port Eregli.

The vessel disabled the AIS, sailed into Kamyshova Bay and berthed at farthermost Berth No. 231 of Sevastopol Dockyard.

The berth is used not only by Sevastopol Dockyard, but other companies, e.g. Metal Service Group as well.

We could find a photo of the FOM vessel at Berth 231 in Kamyshova Bay made on April 3, 2017. This photo is a conclusive evidence of the vessel illegally calling at the port closed by Ukraine and violation of the State Border.

Please find below the georeferencing details.

So, we established the fact of illegal call of the vessel at the occupied port of Sevastopol for the delivery of smuggled cargo that had not been subject to formalities prescribed by Ukrainian laws, after having departed from Eregli port, Turkey.

With its thee illegal calls in 2015 and being seen reappearing in Crimea in December 2016, the FOM is a malicious violator of the State Border of Ukraine.

The last time the bulk carrier visited Crimea was during February 27 – March 02, 2017, when the ship carried 2000 tonnes of soda out of occupied Sevastopol.

The captain turned the AIS off when leaving the Bosporus heading for Sevastopol.

The vessel called at the port on 9:00 am on February 27, was loaded with cargo at Berth 221 in Kamyshova Bay and left Sevastopol at 2:30 pm on March 2.

Another illegal call by the mv FOM reported by us was when it arrived in Sevastopol open harbor at 1:29 am on January 30, while entering Kamyshova Bay at 8:25 am on February 1, loading 2000 tonnes of soda at Kamyshova Bay Berth 221, and departing from the port at 9:00 am on February 5.

During December 26 – December 31, 2016 the vessel was also seen in Sevastopol, where we tracked it arriving at 11:08 on December 26, loading 2000 tonnes of soda at Kamyshova Bay Berth 221 and departing at 5:41 pm on December 31.

In this way, we have collected evidence of four illegal calls of the FOM bulk carrier at the closed Ukrainian port Sevastopol, made during the period from December 2016 on. While the first three voyages she made to smuggle soda from the occupied territory, this time it came to Sevastopol with a freight of construction mixture after having been loaded in the Turkish port of Eregli.

The port clearance, being the key shipping document, will be signed by the occupants – customs officers, border guards and the so called “captain” of Sevastopol port. This document puts representatives of the Turkish authorities, who will be presented this document, in a situation, when they will have to do something about it.

We follow and will keep you informed of the developments.

UPD