A court in Sweden has arrested the ship «CAFFA» at the request of the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office. The ship is suspected of involvement in the illegal export of Ukrainian products from the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. This was reported by Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.
“Today, a court in Sweden has arrested the ship «CAFFA». This is the first case when, at the request of the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office for international legal assistance, a foreign court has approved the arrest of a ship that could have been involved in the illegal export of Ukrainian products from the temporarily occupied territory,” Kravchenko noted.
According to the investigation, the vessel systematically violated the procedure for entering and leaving the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. To conceal this activity, according to the investigation, a scheme with a false registration was used, and in international databases the vessel was marked as “Guinea False”.
On March 12, 2026, the Prosecutor General’s Office appealed to the Ministry of Justice of the Kingdom of Sweden with a request for international legal assistance. The Ukrainian side requested to search the vessel, interrogate the captain and crew members, and also to arrest CAFFA.
Swedish law enforcement agencies promptly executed the request. The very next week after receiving it, they conducted a search on the vessel and interrogated witnesses.
“Today, this process received an important procedural extension — the court approved the arrest of the vessel,” the Prosecutor General added.
According to him, the decision was the result of cooperation between Ukraine and international partners in the field of legal assistance. At the same time, a Swedish court has provisionally approved the transfer of the vessel to Ukraine, but this decision can still be appealed.
Currently, the CAFFA, which was detained in March, is in the port of Trelleborg. The court concluded that the arrest has sufficient legal grounds and that there are prerequisites for the transfer of the vessel to the Ukrainian side.
