Sweden will hand over to Kyiv a seized Russian “shadow fleet” cargo ship which Ukraine suspects of transporting grain stolen from its occupied territory, Swedish court documents showed on Thursday.

The Supreme Court on August 4 dismissed an appeal by Caffa Shipping Ltd, which owns the 96-metre (315-foot) Caffa, in a bid to block the transfer requested by Ukraine and approved by two lower courts in Sweden.

Moscow’s “shadow fleet” consists of vessels used to skirt Western sanctions. They are often ageing ships in poor condition, without proper insurance and with opaque ownership.

The Caffa, which was sailing under a false Guinean flag, was headed for Saint Petersburg, Russia, when armed Swedish police boarded it on March 6 off Trelleborg on its southern coast.

Swedish authorities had acted on a request for legal assistance from Ukraine, where Caffa is the subject of a legal investigation, according to the Ystad district court in Sweden. The vessel was transporting grain, according to the Ukrainian sanctions commissioner, Vladyslav Vlasiuk.

He said the ship had previously been involved in stealing grain from occupied Ukrainian territory, including transporting a shipment from the port of Sevastopol in Crimea in July 2025. The vessel then unloaded its cargo in the port of Tartus, in Syria, he wrote in a Facebook post on March 7.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha thanked Sweden on Thursday. “This landmark decision sets an important precedent, demonstrating that decisive action by law enforcement and prosecutors, combined with an independent and impartial judiciary, can translate the principle of accountability into tangible results,” he wrote in a post on X.

In a separate development concerning Ukraine, its former ambassador to Washington, Olga Stefanishyna, was named a suspect in a corruption case, the court and investigators said Thursday, shortly after she was dismissed from her US posting.

Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court said Stefanishyna had been “notified of suspicion of illicit enrichment and providing false information in a declaration”. She was released on bail of 6 million hryvnias ($134,000), the court added.

Responding to the accusation, Stefanishyna said, “I regard these events calmly and without unnecessary emotion, and the noise around this story looks more like a storm in a teacup.” She posted a photo of herself appearing to be at the court.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau said she was suspected of “illicit enrichment” involving more than 13.9 million hryvnias. She is accused of having undeclared assets — apartments and other property — that investigators say could not be explained by her official income.

Stefanishyna said she had already “quite thoroughly commented” on media reports “including those concerning property”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed her on Monday from her posting in Washington. He has not officially appointed a replacement, a crucial position for Ukraine, as Kyiv depends on US arms deliveries and intelligence-sharing in the conflict against Russia. (AFP)