Caught on satellite Why is a Chinese ship sneaking into Crimea’s sanctioned ports?
This year, for the first time since Russia occupied Crimea in 2014, a Chinese cargo ship was spotted docking at the peninsula’s sanctioned ports, according to Ukrainian officials. Satellite imagery revealed the Heng Yang 9’s visit, even as it transmitted false coordinates to try and conceal its movements. RFE/RL’s Crimean service, Krym.Realii, investigated why a Chinese vessel is now making covert trips to the annexed peninsula. Meduza shares an abridged translation of their reporting.
Over the past several months, the Chinese cargo ship Heng Yang 9 has been seen in Russian-occupied Crimea at least three times — from June 19 to 22, again on August 15, and for a stretch in September, Ukrainian officials told the Financial Times.
While in the Black Sea, the vessel attempted to disguise its movements by transmitting false coordinates, the FT reported. Transponder data suggested it was heading to Port Kavkaz in Russia, but satellite images revealed its true destination: Sevastopol, in Crimea.
The Telegram channel Crimean Wind published photos showing the Heng Yang 9 docked there. In the images, the ship’s name is covered with a white cloth.
This form of camouflage has become common among Russian vessels since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Ships arriving in Crimea with cargo from other Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine often conceal their identities in an effort to avoid being photographed or filmed in the peninsula’s sanctioned ports.
According to Ukrainian officials, after stopping in Crimea, the Heng Yang 9 traveled on to Turkey and Egypt. MarineTraffic, a real-time vessel tracking service, also showed the ship off the Turkish coast on September 24.
The Heng Yang 9 sails under a Panamanian flag and is owned by Guangxi Changhai Shipping Company, based in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The ship is registered at the Ningbo Donghe Shipyard in Zhejiang Province, where it was built in June 2012.
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‘A functioning container line’
In May, the investigative project SeaKrime, part of Ukraine’s Myrotvorets Center, spotted the Heng Yang 9 off the coast of Crimea. The team was able to track its movements, said Kateryna Yaresko, a journalist with SeaKrime.
“We documented this vessel in May when it entered Sevastopol,” Yaresko told Krym.Realii. “It caught our attention because container shipping in Crimea had all but disappeared. Containers usually carry equipment, weapons, or other sensitive cargo. Using satellite images, we confirmed that containers were piling up at a pier in Sevastopol — and then this ship arrived and took them away.”
According to Yaresko, the Heng Yang 9 typically came to Crimea from Alexandria, Egypt, stopping first in Turkish ports along the way. From there, it would continue on to Novorossiysk, in Russia, unload containers, and then return to Sevastopol to pick up new cargo to carry back to Alexandria. “This is effectively a functioning container line,” she said.
The British publication Lloyd’s List wrote that among the cargo shipped aboard the Heng Yang 9 were goods exported from Russian-occupied Donbas, delivered by rail to Crimean ports for export.
It’s impossible to verify this claim under wartime conditions. Still, the appearance of the Chinese container ship off Crimea came after Russia opened a railway “land corridor” through occupied areas of southeastern Ukraine, connecting the peninsula to Russian-controlled areas of Donetsk and Kherson.
The view from China
Whether the appearance of a privately owned Chinese container ship in Crimea reflects Beijing’s broader policy toward Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory remains unclear.
“You can’t draw conclusions about a country’s policy from the fact that one Chinese vessel entered Crimea,” said Yaresko. “We’ll see what that policy looks like when there’s a response to media coverage. Ukrainian diplomats in China have already reacted, and processes at the official level are underway. We’ll see what the reaction will be.”
Vladyslav Vlasiuk, the Ukrainian president’s commissioner for sanctions policy, said Ukraine’s embassy in Beijing raised the incident with China’s Foreign Ministry, expressing “strong disapproval.” He added that Chinese officials responded by saying the country advises its citizens and companies to avoid contact with occupied Ukrainian territories.
Still, China has signaled where its sympathies lie. At the end of August, Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu called relations with Russia “the most stable and strategically important” of all Beijing’s ties with major powers.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, citing information from Ukraine’s security services and intelligence agencies, has previously said that China is supplying Russia with gunpowder and artillery during its full-scale invasion. Beijing’s Foreign Ministry has dismissed those claims as “baseless.”
In July, Reuters reported that China was covertly sending engines to Russia through shell companies, labeling them as “industrial refrigeration units.” That equipment has been used to manufacture drones. China’s Foreign Ministry said it was unaware of the shipments and insisted the country controls “foreign sales of dual-use goods in line with China’s own laws and international obligations.”
