Summary
The military operation initiated by Russia on February 24th, 2022 trapped 102 international flag merchant’s vessels and froze commercial operations in all Ukrainian seaports.
In the early days of the conflict, seven vessels became “War Loss” and several ships were laid up due to the fact that the Classification societies did not have access to ships to renew their trading certificates.
Thanks to a joint effort, the United Nations (UN), Turkey, Ukraine and Russia agreed to resume traffic to allow food-stock exports from three Ukrainian ports under the Black Sea Grain Initiative from July 27th, 2022. The initiative facilitated the departure of several of the initially blocked ships.
As the milestone of 12 months since the beginning of the conflict is approaching, owners of trapped vessels would be able to claim Constructive Total Loss (CTL) for their assets. To support the insurance industry to accurately update the list of trapped assets in the area, and to cope with the lack of AIS signal of vessels in this area, Skytek tasked and acquired the latest high-resolution satellite imagery, allowing the generation of an accurate updated list of trapped vessels and their conditions. This list can be made available upon request, together with up-to-date satellite imagery and information on the vessel’s conditions.
As of January 09th, 2023, 45 merchant vessels managed to sail out of Ukrainian ports. 50 vessels remain trapped alongside or in the inner roads of the Ukrainian ports, aggregating to approximately $364 million, as estimated by Skytek’s price modelling platform.
Skytek lists in the following paragraphs the situation of the vessels trapped in the Ukrainian sea ports in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
THE PORT OF CHORNOMORSK
From the beginning of conflict in Ukraine, the vessels trapped alongside or in the inner harbour waters have gradually turned off their AIS broadcasting.
Skytek has employed high resolution imagery and proprietary vessel-identifying techniques to track and identify ships inside Ukrainian ports.
From the 22 merchant ships captured by Skytek moored in Illichevsk port at the beginning of the military operation, only two remained alongside and could not depart: the Bulk Carrier Emmakris III and Ro-Ro Ship Geroi Shipki.
Skytek represents the Emmakris III in Figure 1 below and can provide upon request condition reports for this vessel or any of the assets trapped in the Ukrainian ports.
The Emmakris III, IMO: 9218387, which has loaded 60,000 MT grain for Egypt, is reportedly detained by a Kyiv court; the Black Sea MOU of Port State Control does not list Emmakris III as detained. Emmakris III is operated by MCF Shipping, a company that operates also the Emmakris II, IMO: 9254575 which has been spotted throughout the year loading grain from Sevastopol which was allegedly stolen from Ukraine to Syria or Turkey.
THE PORT OF ODESA
On February 24th, 2022, there were 12 merchant ships alongside jetties in Odesa. The Grain Agreement initiative aided in the release of some of the ships. Using very-high resolution satellite data, Skytek captures that as of January 02nd, 2023, the number of the trapped ships decreased to five, of which the Skytek valuation model indicates the highest market value vessel is the Container Carrier Joseph Schulte – IMO: 9605243.
THE PORT OF YUZHNY
12 merchant ships were captured by Skytek moored in Yuzhny port on February 24th, 2022, and by May 2022 half of the vessels saw their manning crew off the vessels.
As of January 02nd, 2023, analysing high-resolution satellite imagery, Skytek notes that only the Bulk Carrier Filia Glory and the Bulk Carrier Ocean Courtesy are moored in the port of Yhuzny in the coal port at jetties #5 and #6, respectively.
THE PORT OF MYKOLAIV
In the five cargo terminals along the Bug river operated under Mykolaiv port, 27 merchant vessels of international flag were captured on February 24th, 2022. Shortly after the start of the conflict, the trapped vessels ceased transmitting AIS identification signal, and, using very-high-resolution satellite imagery and proprietary recognition techniques, Skytek identified all the vessels in the port and determined that no vessel was able to depart from Mykolaiv since February 24th, 2022.
The extract below shows a sample of the information available in the fully accurate and updated list of trapped vessels. This list can be made available upon request, together with up to date very-high, resolution satellite imagery and information on the vessel’s current conditions. The information included in this exhaustive list is:
- Asset Name, IMO and MMSI
- DWT, Asset Type and detailed type
- YOB, Flag and Class
- P&I Club, Registered Owner, Operator and Technical Manager
- Class status
- Arrived Port, Arrival and Departure Dates
