On August 5, the Swedish Supreme Court supported a prior ruling that lets Ukraine claim the Caffa, a Russian shadow fleet ship caught in the Baltic Sea. The ship is suspected of moving grain taken from areas of Ukraine under Russian control.
Swedish officials stopped the Caffa in March after it failed to meet safety requirements. It was labeled 'stateless.' Though flying a Guinean flag, it was considered to have no real nationality. Ukraine had put it on its list of sanctions when it was first detained.
Prime Minister Andrii Sybiha of Ukraine described the ruling as 'landmark.' It marks the first time a court in another country has mandated the handover of a Russian ship. The ship is linked to stolen Ukrainian grain.
Vladyslav Vlasiuk, who leads Ukraine’s sanctions strategy, said the Caffa had before taken grain from ports in occupied Ukraine. An example is a shipment from Sevastopol in Crimea in July 2025. The vessel then unloaded its cargo in the port of Tartus in Syria, he wrote in a Facebook post on 7 March.
Russia uses a fleet of old, often uninsured tankers to circumvent Western sanctions. These 'shadow fleet' ships operate under flags of third-party countries to hide their true origins. Ukraine and its allies have increased actions to stop and take these vessels.
The European Union’s 21st round of sanctions now gives EU nations the right to sell goods taken from these ships. A unified EU group has already captured several shadow fleet tankers in the Mediterranean. France, Belgium, and the UK have also searched shadow fleet vessels in their waters recently.