KYIV. July 25 (Interfax) - The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Military Prosecutor's Office have detained the Russian tanker NEYMA which blocked the Ukrainian Navy's Yany Kapu tug and Berdyansk and Nikopol armored gunboats in the Kerch Strait in November 2018; a motion asking a court to seize the Russian vessel is being prepared, the SBU press center said in a statement on Thursday.
"SBU investigators have initiated and are now conducting a pre-trial investigation under the procedural guidance of the Military Prosecutor's Office into the NEYMA tanker's blocking of the Kerch-Yenikale canal in the Kerch Strait [...] According to information from Ukrainian border guards, the Russian-flagged tanker NIKA SPIRIT, which, according to its IMO number - 8895528 - and according to the data of the international information system EQUASIS, has already been identified as the known tanker NEYMA which was used to block the Kerch Strait, entered the Izmail port [in the Odesa region] on July 24," the statement said.
Investigators have established that the Russian owners renamed the NEYMA tanker as the NIKA SPIRIT after the incident in the Kerch Strait.
"A group of SBU investigators, military prosecutors, and border guards have now completed investigative measures on board the tanker authorized by a Ukrainian court - a search aimed at establishing the facts of the case and the seizure of documents from the vessel, recordings of radio exchanges during the conflict, and the log books. The crewmembers have been interviewed and all documents the investigators will need to establish the truth have been seized. This vessel has been deemed material evidence. A motion asking the court for seizing it is being prepared," the statement said.