Sweden's Supreme Court on [date] rejected an appeal by Caffa Shipping Ltd, the vessel's owner, and upheld earlier rulings to transfer the ship to Ukraine. The court's decision follows the vessel's detention on March 6 as it sailed from Casablanca to St. Petersburg under a Guinean flag, which Swedish authorities called a 'flag of convenience' and deemed the ship 'stateless'.
The Swedish Coast Guard said at the time that Caffa was not on a peaceful passage through the country's territorial waters. Ukraine had sought the vessel as part of its investigation into alleged Russian war crimes involving the appropriation and removal of property from occupied territories.
According to The Insider, the ship had sailed under the Russian flag from at least 2017 until June 2025, when it changed flags after Ukraine added it to a sanctions list. The vessel is believed to have transported grain from annexed Sevastopol to Syria.
The ship's captain, a Russian citizen, was detained in Sweden and charged with using forged maritime certificates, violating maritime law, and breaching ship safety regulations. He was released in April and said he was unaware the documents were fake.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called the ruling significant, saying it sets an important precedent. 'Decisive actions by law enforcement and prosecutors, combined with an independent and impartial judicial system, allow the principle of accountability to be translated into concrete results,' he said.