Sanctioned Russian cargo carrier makes port call in Norwegian archipelago

The 130-metre-long cargo ship set out from Murmansk on December 19 and arrived in Barentsburg on December 22. Four days later, the carrier again set out at sea and returned to Murmansk.

The Taimyr is owned and operated by TC Nord Project, a shipping company based in Arkhangelsk. The company and all its ships were subjected to sanctions by Ukraine and the US in May 2022 following involvement in transportation of Russian weapons.

Neither the EU, nor Norway, have imposed sanctions against the TC Nord Project and its vessels.

The TC Nord Project specialises in maritime freight transport on the Northern Sea Route and provides year-round cargo delivery to ports in the Far North and along the Russian Arctic coast. There are 15 vessels that play a crucial role in Russian Arctic shipping in the company's fleet.

It is not clear what kind of cargo that was on board the Taimyr in the recent shipment to Barentsburg. The recipient of the goods was most likely Arktikugol, the Russian state-owned coal mining company. 

Barentsburg is a Russian settlement on the Norwegian Arctic archipelago. It is run by Arktikugol and is subject to Norwegian legislation as part of the Svalbard Treaty.

The Taimyr is not the only sanctioned ship that has made port call in Barentsburg in 2025. In September, the Kapitan Yakovlev visited the Norwegian archipelago.

The Kapitan Yakovlev is known as a ship that has taken part in Russian weapons deliveries in the Black Sea as part of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. The ship is owned and operated by the Northern Shipping Company, which has been under US and Ukrainian sanctions since May 2022.

The Kapitan Yakovlev made port calls in Sevastopol, as well as in Novorossiisk, in 2023 and 2025. As the ship entered the occupied port of Sevastopol, the ship's captain turned off the AIS.