Ship involved in Russian weapons deliveries is on the way to Svalbard

The Kapitan Yakovlev set out from Murmansk on September 8 and is expected to arrive in Barentsburg in the course of the next couple of days. 

The vessel is owned and operated by the Northern Shipping Company, which has been under US and Ukrainian sanctions since May 2022.

According to US authorities, the Northern Shipping Company is "involved in the military logistics sector of the Russian federation, transporting tanks and other military equipment for the Russian armed forces."

It is "affiliated with the Ministry of Defence of the Russian federation and provides services under state defense contracts for the transportation of goods for the benefit of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian federation," the US authorities explain.

Ship traffic data from Equasis indicate that the Kapitan Yakovlev operated in the Mediterranean and Black Sea in the period between March 2023 and May 2025. 

The Ukrainian investigative media Myrotvorets News in September 2023 revealed that the Kapitan Yakovlev the previous month had made port call to Sevastopol, the Ukrainian port city occupied by Russia since 2014. Shortly later, the ship also made port call in Novorossiisk.

The ship captain turned off the AIS as the ship entered occupied Sevastopol. 

According to the Ukrainian journalists, criminal proceedings should be initiated against ship captain Vadim Novsky, who violated Ukrainian laws when he deliberately turned off the ship's transponder in order to conceal the illegal entry of the ship into occupied Sevastopol.

Neither the EU, nor Norway, have imposed sanctions against the Northern Shipping Company and its vessels.

The Kapitan Yakovlev is not the only of the company's vessels that are operating in the Black Sea. Judging from ship traffic information, both the SMP Severodvinsk and Mikhail Lomonosov were in early September sailing in the area.

At the same time, another of the company's ships, the Teriberka, was on the way to Novaya Zemlya, the heavily militarised Arctic archipelago 

It is not clear what cargo that is onboard the Kapitan Yakovlev. The recipient of the goods is likely to be Arktikugol, the Russian state-owned coal mining company. 

The Barents Observer has sent a request to the shipping company, as well as to Arktikugol, for a comment about the ship and its cargo, but has not gotten any response.