On February 15, 2026, the majority provider, Grumant (IMO: 9385879) was pictured on the occupied Ukrainian Port of Feodosia on the Crimean peninsula. Satellite tv for pc imagery suggests it had already been there for a number of days. It appeared to refill on grain earlier than departing on a two-month-long journey finally docking on the Port of Benghazi in Libya on April 18.
Whereas there have been earlier experiences of grain shipments from occupied Ukraine arriving in Libya, that is solely the second time a Russian ship has been noticed delivering what the Ukrainian authorities describes as “stolen” grain to the nation. The earlier case concerned the Damas Wave which travelled in January of final 12 months to the port of Misrata which is underneath the management of the UN-recognised Authorities of Nationwide Unity (GNU). Along with satellite tv for pc imagery, Bellingcat deployed a brand new approach that analysed Grumant’s heading information which was contained in AIS data offered by Lloyd’s Checklist Intelligence, to assist affirm Grumant’s presence in Feodosia.
Bellingcat has been monitoring smuggled Ukrainian grain shipments as they discover new markets, 5 of the ships we beforehand recognized have since been sanctioned by the EU whereas one other was sanctioned by the US Division of Treasury.
Bosphorus Strait
Grumant transits the Bosphorus Strait in the midst of the night time.
Credit score: Yörük Işık.
Black Sea
Grumant enters a area of the Black Sea recognized for GNSS interference, that means that Grumant’s publicly reported Automated Identification System (AIS) place is unreliable.
Port of Feodosia
On February 15, a excessive decision satellite tv for pc picture confirms the ship is docked on the port of Feodosia at berth No. 1 that’s used for bulk and steel cargo. Matching options seen embody Grumant’s gray decking, its seven hatches and shiny yellow entrance mast. What seems to be leftover grain might be seen underneath the 2 port crates, instantly subsequent to the ship.
Credit score: Satellite tv for pc picture ©2026 Vantor.
Black Sea
Grumant exits the realm of sign interference, that means that its reported place on ship monitoring companies is now dependable once more. Its AIS messages point out it’s travelling in direction of the Bosphorus.
Bosphorus Strait
Grumant transits the Bosphorus Strait in direction of the Sea of Marmara. Judging by the draft, with no seen pink paint on its hull, the ship seems to be absolutely laden.
Credit score: Yörük Işık.
Izmir Anchorage
Grumant arrives in Izmir, Turkey on February 23 and anchors off the coast till March 13.
Over the course of three weeks, Grumant by no means enters the Port of Izmir. It’s not recognized if it was denied entry. Bellingcat requested the port operators however didn’t obtain a response earlier than publication.
Credit score:
Planet Labs PBC.
Aliağa
Grumant then loiters off the coast of Aliağa, about 50 km from Izmir. It stays right here till March 16, by no means coming into the port. It once more will not be recognized if it was denied entry. Bellingcat requested the port operators however didn’t obtain a response earlier than publication.
Close to Benghazi
Grumant arrives in Libyan waters and stays off the coast of Benghazi till April 1.
Libyan Waters
Grumant briefly leaves the coast of Benghazi, however returns just a few days later.
Benghazi
Grumant leaves the anchorage on April 18 and docks on the port of Benghazi the place it unloads the grain. The ship was captured in a Vantor satellite tv for pc picture on April 20.
It leaves port on April 23, and heads again in direction of the Bosphorus.
Credit score: Satellite tv for pc picture ©2026 Vantor.
Bosphorus Strait
After spending just a few days off the coast of Tuzla, Grumant transits the Bosphorus in direction of the Black Sea.
Credit score: Yörük Işık.
Lloyd’s Checklist Intelligence has beforehand reported on the enlargement of Russia’s grain smuggling operations, past the occupied port of Sevastopol to incorporate Feodosia port.
In line with the Ukrainian activism, journalism and hacker group, Kiborg Information, Grumant used misleading transport practices to ship grain to Latakia, Syria in 2024. The report included a number of of Grumant’s transport manifests, which confirmed it had repeatedly exported grain from Occupied Crimea to Syria.
Heading Knowledge Helps Find Grumant
It’s customary maritime observe that ships broadcast Automated Identification System (AIS) messages which embody a ship’s place, heading, and draught (amongst different data).
Due to longstanding International Navigation Satellite tv for pc System (GNSS) interference in components of the Black Sea, the place information transmitted by an affected ship’s AIS system is usually unreliable.
Between February 7 and February 19, 2026, information from Lloyd’s Checklist Intelligence reveals the Grumant transmitted 29 AIS messages, with unreliable positions within the neighborhood of Feodosia. We all know these positions are unreliable as they’re erratic and a few of them report the ship as being positioned on land.
Nonetheless, in accordance with the IMO, the heading information transmitted by a ship’s AIS system should come from an onboard compass. A compass is unaffected by GNSS interference, that means it’s a extra dependable supply of data in these situations.
Over the identical dates, all 29 AIS messages reported the ship’s heading as 267 levels or 268 levels. The Port of Feodosia has a heading of 267.5 levels. The shut settlement between the ship’s heading and port heading strongly means that Grumant was moored on the port between February 7 and February 19, 2026.
We carried out an additional test of the heading information by reviewing satellite tv for pc imagery out there of berth 1 at Feodosia Port, which means that the identical vessel was current on a number of days between February 6 and February 18. Imagery on Feb. 6 reveals the port was empty within the morning and occupied within the afternoon. Grumant exited the realm of GNSS interference on February 21, and berth 1 on the port was captured on satellite tv for pc picture on February 22 and appeared empty. The low decision satellite tv for pc imagery is simply used as an extra test to see if a vessel is on the berth.
Bellingcat checked all vessels transmitting AIS within the neighborhood of Feodosia Port and located that Grumant was the one one which persistently transmitted a heading matching the Port of Feodosia over the interval of curiosity.
We shared our analysis with Charlie Brown, a former US Naval Officer and Senior Advisor at United In opposition to Nuclear Iran the place he focuses on maritime sanctions enforcement and the monitoring of illicit transport. Brown instructed Bellingcat that whereas satellite tv for pc imagery of vessels remained key for identification, when on the lookout for dependable information in a spoofing atmosphere it made sense to take a look at the varied parts of AIS information to try to discover some correct data, regardless of GNSS spoofing.
“It’s fairly customary for the unbiased gyro compass to be offering the heading […] I feel the bulk wouldn’t [be subject to spoofing] so it’s a superb methodology to parse out the actual information after which make some inferences from that.”
“It’s neat to think about what might be derived from information that might in any other case be soiled or incorrect. So there’s nonetheless some parts of use in there.”
He added that in principle there are in all probability some compasses which can be topic to spoofing as nicely.
He instructed Bellingcat that it was truthful to say the heading information of the Grumant supported identification, however careworn the necessity to cross-reference with different information sources.
Whereas on this occasion it has been doable to make use of AIS information to assist confirm the situation of Grumant, it’s comparatively uncommon to have entry to this data.
Ships that decision to the occupied territories regularly disable their AIS transponders to take action.
This exercise, generally known as “darkish port calls”, is a typical tactic for these partaking in illicit or sanctioned trades.
Grumant doesn’t transmit AIS messages from February 8 to 11, however that is the longest hole in information (see diagram above), with intermittent messages coming by way of after that time.
It’s unclear why Grumant continued to transmit AIS through the interval it was loading in Feodosia.
A overview of Lloyd’s Checklist Intelligence information from January 2025 reveals that on a earlier voyage to the Black Sea the Grumant operated “darkish” for 59 days.
Visible Identification
On February 15, 2026, excessive decision imagery confirmed Grumant docked within the Port of Feodosia. We in contrast it with different current pictures of Grumant to verify the match.
The ship within the satellite tv for pc picture has a grey-coloured deck, which is unusual sufficient for it to face out. Many bulk carriers have cranes (together with the ships we beforehand lined resembling Krasnodar, Zafar and Zaid), Grumant doesn’t have any. It additionally has seven hatches (openings for the grain) and a shiny yellow entrance mast that matches the mast of Grumant (see the picture of it transiting the Bosphorus). We will match the Grumant within the Feodosia picture, not solely to photos of the Grumant shot from the bottom, but in addition to the satellite tv for pc picture from Benghazi.
The size and breadth of the ship additionally matches that of the Grumant; 180 metres by 22.90 metres.
Libya’s Relationship with Russia and Ukraine
Libya has sophisticated inside dynamics with basically two administrations answerable for totally different components of the nation – the Authorities of Nationwide Unity (GNU) within the west and the Libyan Nationwide Military (LNA) within the east.
Lately, Russia has backed the LNA’s Normal Khalifa Haftar, based mostly out of Benghazi, within the east of the nation. However Jalel Harchaoui, a political scientist specialising in Libya with the Royal United Companies Institute (RUSI), careworn that the 2 sides of this battle, the LNA and the UN-recognised GNU, will not be at present preventing. As an alternative they’re in a flawed, multi-year truce.
Due to this fact, the east-west divide isn’t as clear-cut as through the civil conflict. Whereas all shipments going to Benghazi and Tobruk are overseen by the LNA, not all shipments going to town of Misrata (which is run by the GNU) are meant for the GNU-dominated a part of the nation.
Harchaoui instructed Bellingcat: “the Tripoli authorities is in some regards pro-Ukraine, but when there’s enterprise that may be carried out with Russia by way of the very opaque port of Misrata and all the best individuals receives a commission, the enterprise goes to happen.”
That remark is doubtlessly important given no less than one beforehand tracked vessel that went from occupied Ukraine to Libya docked in Misrata.
This was not the case of the Grumant, nonetheless, which arrived in an LNA-controlled a part of the nation. It’s not recognized from open sources alone if the authorities in Libya or on the port in Benghazi knew the grain carried by Grumant had come from occupied Ukraine.
Bellingcat contacted the Benghazi-based LNA authorities and representatives of the Tripoli-based GNU authorities through the Libyan Embassy in The Netherlands. We additionally contacted the Port of Benghazi, Port of Imzir in Turkey in addition to the Ukrainian and Russian authorities. Representatives of the LNA didn’t reply to requests for remark earlier than publication, nor did the Port of Benghazi or Port of Izmir. The Libyan Embassy in The Netherlands replied to Bellingcat after publication, stating that Benghazi and jap Libya will not be underneath the authority or administrative management of the Authorities of Nationwide Unity and subsequently they aren’t at present ready to touch upon Bellingcat’s findings.
Ukraine Continues to Pursue the “Shadow Grain Fleet”
“The port of Feodosia, positioned within the briefly occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea, will not be underneath Ukrainian management, and any business exercise carried out there may be unlawful,” the Ministry for Improvement of Communities and Territories of Ukraine and the Ministry of International Affairs of Ukraine instructed Bellingcat in a joint response.
They instructed us the loading of grain exported from the briefly occupied territories is an unlawful act and Russia was utilizing ports as logistics facilities to export stolen Ukrainian agricultural merchandise.
“The enlargement of such routes to 3rd international locations, specifically to North Africa, demonstrates Russia’s ongoing efforts to bypass worldwide sanctions and monetize assets stolen from the occupied Ukrainian territories.”
The Ukrainian Ministry of International Affairs despatched details about Grumant’s (IMO: 9385879) “unlawful actions” to the diplomatic missions in Nice Britain, the Republic of Turkey and the Republic of Tunisia over the course of March to Could this 12 months, the ministries instructed Bellingcat.
Ukraine is continuous to pursue authorized motion in opposition to Russia’s “shadow grain fleet” they instructed us. As an illustration, earlier this month a Swedish court docket accredited the switch of the Russian “shadow grain fleet” vessel CAFFA to Ukraine for investigation after it was arrested in Swedish waters.
This case has set a brand new precedent, going past sanction and fines beforehand handed out to such vessels, and permitting for the detention and confiscation of a shadow fleet vessel in European jurisdictions, the ministries mentioned.
In line with Russian court docket paperwork Grumant’s earlier proprietor Murmansk Delivery Firm was dissolved and “Resolution/Reshenie” LLC had been listed because the Worldwide Security Supervisor and operator of Grumant. Resolution/Reshenie had been additionally listed because the operator of Grumant in one other court docket doc, from an unrelated case.
Bellingcat tried to contact Resolution/Reshenie to ask about Grumant’s grain cargo from Feodisia Port to Benghazi Port, however they’d not responded at time of publication.
Youri van der Weide, Galen Reich, Yörük Işık and Bridget Diakun contributed to this report.
Cowl picture: Planet Lab picture reveals Grumant anchored off Izmir, Turkey on February 27. Credit score: Planet Labs PBC.
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