On October 19, the Kherson Regional Administrative Court held its first meeting on the lawsuit of Russian company “V.F. Tanker” to the Azov-Black Sea Regional Directorate of the State Border Guard Service and a Captain of Kherson Sea Port Ivan Yefymenko. The case concerns the blocked Russian tanker “Mekhanik Pogodin” (IMO 9598397), which is located in Kherson oil and gas terminal.
The Presidential Office in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea serves as the third party without independent requirements on behalf of the defense side.
Before the meeting, the plaintiff’s lawyer Vitaliy Tolstik appealed to the court requesting to receive documents from the defendant, which described in detail the circumstances and reasons for towing the Russian ship.
The representative of the defendant from the SBGS (State Border Guard Service of Ukraine) objected to this, referring to the classified status given by SBU, which marked these documents. According to the defendant, the provision of such documents to the plaintiff may harm the national interests of Ukraine, since the plaintiff is the representative of the aggressor state, against which Ukraine has imposed a series of sanctions.
After consulting on the spot, Judge Dmytrieva decided to postpone the trial until October 24 in order to requested documents being provided to the court. Then it will decide whether to attach them to the case.
After the court hearing, we tried to take comments on the case from the plaintiff – a lawyer and a representative of “V.F. Tanker”. By the way, she came to a meeting with an interpreter. But they refused to communicate with journalists.
From the case file materials available in the register of court decisions, we found out the demands of the Russians to the Ukrainian border guards and the captain of the Kherson port.
The plaintiff requested to recognize the actions of Kherson sea port’s Captain Ivan Yefymenko as for the order number 7 and number 8 10.08.2018 and on [it is the ban on exiting the port – Editor’s note]. Russians also asks the court to recognize inactivity of Harbor’s captain, which lies in ignoring the documents that confirm the lack of connection between JSC “VEB Leasing” (a person which is under sanctions) and ship “Mekhanik Pogodin” and failure to provide permission to leave the port The plaintiff asks for such permission.
Company “V. F. Tanker” also asks the court to declare illegal and to cancel the decision of the Azov-Black Sea Regional Department of the SBGS for detaining the tanker and to oblige the border guards to refrain from interfering with obtaining permission to leave the Kherson Sea Commercial Port’s water area.
Earlier, in its address to the President of Ukraine, the company “V. F. Tanke” stated that it is the sole owner and manager of the vessel. As the representatives of “V. F. Tanker” note, the reason for Ukraine’s blocking of the tanker “Mechanic Pogodin” is that in 2011 the construction of the vessel was financed by the company “VEB Leasing”, which is included in the sanction lists of Ukraine.
“V. F. Tanker” claims that in order to remove the formal reason for the detention of the vessel, the company had completed all payments under the leasing agreement ahead of time and became the owner of the vessel. Documents were provided to the border guard service, the captain of the Kherson Sea Port and the Security Service of Ukraine, however, the ban on the vessel’s departure has not been lifted.
Recall that on August 10, officers of the State Security Service of Ukraine in the Crimea discovered the Russian vessel “Mekhanik Pogodin”, which was blocked due to its belonging to the company “VEB Leasing”, which is in the sanction list of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. On this basis, it is prohibited for a tanker to discharge and go beyond the port of Kherson.
According to the Russian State Register of Legal Entities, “VEB Leasing” is registered in Moscow and is founded by Joint Industrial Corporation of Oboronprom, which, in its turn, was founded by “Rosoboronexport”, owned by “Rostech”, a state-owned corporation.
Ltd. “VF Tanker” is registered in Russia, in the city of Nizhny Novgorod. This company is managed by “Transport Asset Management” LLC, which founders are registered in the Netherlands. Founder of LLC “V.F. Tanker” is “Volgo-Balt Transport Holding Limited”, registered in Cyprus.
Text and photo by Ivan Antypenko
