The Supreme Court's final ruling lets Kyiv receive the Guinea-flagged ship in a grain case and creates a precedent as the EU widens shadow fleet and crypto sanctions.
Sweden's Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Caffa Shipping Limited and upheld lower-court decisions allowing the seized cargo vessel Caffa and related evidence to be transferred to Ukraine, in what the latest report describes as the first time a foreign court has approved handing a shadow fleet ship to Kyiv. The Guinea-flagged vessel was intercepted in Swedish waters on March 6 on suspicion of carrying stolen Ukrainian grain from Crimea; earlier reporting also said it was sailing under a false flag, lacked seaworthiness and that most of its 11 crew members were Russian. The ruling comes as the EU's 21st sanctions package added more than 41 shadow fleet vessels, taking the bloc's total past 670, and designated more than 100 banking and crypto operators as part of a broader push against sanctions evasion.