Ukraine Prepares to Auction Bulk Carrier Emmakris III, Seized Since 2022

Ukraine's Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) confirmed that it is preparing the sale of the bulk carrier Emmakris III, a vessel it considers linked to Russian interests that has remained laid up at the port of Chornomorsk, in the Odesa region, since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.

The Emmakris III was built in Japan in 2000 and has a deadweight tonnage of 73,000 tonnes according to Maritime Executive, or 73,281 tonnes with a length overall of 225 meters and a beam of 32.26 meters according to Baird Maritime, which also notes that she has seven cargo holds. In 2025 the vessel was renamed Akris, although Ukraine continues to use her former name. While the registered owner is reportedly based in the United Arab Emirates according to ARMA, court records cited by Baird Maritime indicate that the registered owner is the Hong Kong-based firm Greater Bloom; in both cases, the beneficial owner is said to be a Russian company based in Rostov-on-Don, identified by ARMA as Linter, which Ukrainian prosecutors have linked to Russian nationals.

When the war broke out, the Emmakris III was in Chornomorsk loading roughly 60,000 tonnes of grain purchased by the Egyptian government. A court ordered her arrest in January 2023 and transferred her management to ARMA in April of that year. The agency sought an operator through a tender in 2024 and signed a contract with the company Marinex in October of that year. In February 2025, Marinex obtained a ruling from a Kyiv court lifting the restrictions preventing the vessel from leaving Chornomorsk, but six days later a new arrest order was issued. In June 2025, ARMA reported that it had worked together with the Maritime Transport Administration to prevent an attempt to illegally remove the vessel from Ukraine and accused the operator of breaching the contract.

ARMA had valued the vessel at $2.6 million in 2024 following an inspection, and the most recent listing describes her as being in satisfactory condition. A surveyor hired by the agency suggested she could be used as a floating grain depot for the storage and transshipment of dry bulk cargo, a role that, according to ARMA, could prove useful for the logistics sector given the need for additional bulk handling capacity. Neither the auction date nor the starting price has been announced. ARMA stated that, given the vessel's size, high maintenance costs and unwarranted loss of time, the sale is the only effective option, as part of its mission to raise funds from confiscated assets to compensate the State for the economic losses caused by the war.