Ukraine Condemns China’s Operating a Containership from Crimea
Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is lashing out at China and calling for immediate action a day after The Financial Times revealed that a Chinese-owned containership has established service into Russian-occupied Crimea. Ukraine says it has filed an official protest with China’s foreign ministry and notified the International Maritime Organization of what it termed a conscious and brazen disregard for the sovereignty of Ukraine.
The West enacted sanctions in 2014 after Russia annexed Crimea, including barring shipping from using the ports in Crimea. According to the report in the Financial Times, international shipping has avoided the port. Ukraine has recently seized and sold small cargo ships that it accused of exporting grains and other materials from Crimea.
Using data supplied by Ukraine, the FT and others tracked the movements of the containership Heng Yang 9, and the FT reports it has made at least three trips to Crimea in recent months. Built in 2012, the 10,500 dwt containership changed owners in 2024, and its registry was transferred from China to Panama. Equisis lists the owners as Guangxi Changhai Shipping, which has also managed the ship since 2012.
In September, Heng Yang 9 falsified its tracks in the Black Sea, reporting false positions via transponder.
— Vanguard Intel Group ???? (@vanguardintel) September 23, 2025
Satellite images from Sept 6-15 show no ship at reported locations in Novorossiysk or Port Kavkaz.
Aerial photos from Sevastopol (Sept 14) match images of Heng Yang 9… pic.twitter.com/HHGxWlXy6u
Tracking data suggests the ship has repeatedly altered its transmissions, reporting it was at Port Kavkaz on the eastern side of the Kerch Strait. Analyzing satellite data, the ship appears to have traveled from Istanbul, made a stop in Novorossiysk, and then, while disguising its AIS signal, has gone into Sevastopol. FT also reports that the containers on the deck when the vessel arrived in Istanbul on September 17 were in the same configuration as the vessel spotted in Sevastopol days earlier.
FT believes the vessel is being used for exports coming from the industrial and agricultural regions of Donetsk and Kherson, also in occupied Ukraine. They cite Russian reports of a new railway into Crimea that was designed to handle containers from Russia.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Heorhiy Tykhy said in a statement that the vessel was deliberately concealing its movements and transmitting false data. They are calling for China to take urgent measures to prevent these violations, although China does not recognize the Western sanctions. China, in the past, has said, however, that companies are advised to avoid contact with occupied Crimea.
Top photo by George Chernilevsky of Sevastopol in 2012 (Public Domain)