Fiji police are investigating the arrival of a luxury vessel suspected of being owned by a Russian oligarch, questioning its captain about why he brought the boat to the Pacific island nation.
Fiji newspapers on Thursday reported that police had seized the superyacht Amadea, owned by a Russian billionaire, Suleiman Kerimov, who has been sanctioned by the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, and detained its crew.
A superyacht agent in Fiji, who said he represented the Amadea, told news agency Reuters the reports were "not fully factual including ownership of the vessel".
"I do not know who the owner is. There is evidence being released to the police in Fiji," the agent, Chase Smith of Baobab Marine, told Reuters in a telephone interview.
He said two sets of lawyers were handling the situation, and he continued to act for the Amadea and its crew.
An official at the National Police Command and Control Centre told Reuters the captain of the vessel, which arrived on Tuesday, was being questioned about how it came to Fiji without customs clearance.
Russian president Vladimir Putin, politicians and businessmen in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a special military operation, while European countries have seized property including villas and boats.
The US embassy said it was aware the Amadea had docked in Fiji's Lautoka port and the embassy was cooperating with Fijian authorities on the matter.
"The United States is committed to finding and seizing the assets of the oligarchs who have supported the Russian Federation's brutal, unprovoked war of choice against Ukraine," the embassy said in a statement.
"We and several of our EU partners have already frozen or seized many assets of these oligarchs. We are working closely with governments and private sector partners in Europe, and the entire world, including Fiji, on this issue."
The EU delegations in Fiji had also requested cooperation over the Amadea, the Fiji Times reported.
There are only two ports open to superyachts in the Pacific islands region, Fiji and New Caledonia, because of COVID-19 border closures by many small islands, local yachting sources told Reuters.
Superyachts entering Fiji are required to apply for health clearances before departing the previous port, and submit other customs documents three days before arriving in Fijian waters.
Mr Smith said his agency had gone through proper procedures for the vessel. He said he hoped the yacht would be allowed to proceed on its journey, without giving details of its planned destination.
An official in attorney-general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum's office declined to comment. Fiji's immigration department also declined to comment.
The Marine Traffic website showed Amadea left Mexico 18 days ago.
Russian flagship 'seriously damaged' as Moscow threatens to strike Kyiv
Russia's Black Sea flagship leading the naval assault on Ukraine has been "seriously damaged" by an explosion, state media reported on Thursday, as Moscow threatened to strike Kyiv's command centres.
With the war entering its seventh week, US President Joe Biden announced an $800 million ($1 billion) military aid package for Ukraine that included helicopters and armoured personnel carriers.
And international prosecutors said the conflict has turned Ukraine into a "crime scene", suggesting that those responsible could one day face prosecution.
The Russian missile cruiser Moskva has reportedly been damaged. Credit: MAX DELANY/AFP via Getty Images
The damage to the Moskva missile cruiser was caused by ammunition detonating "as a result of a fire", the Russian defence ministry was quoted as saying, adding that the cause of the blaze was being investigated.
The governor of Odesa said Ukrainian forces had hit the vessel with missile strikes, while Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said "we don't understand what happened".
Moscow's Black Sea fleet and off the coast of Odesa, and its ships have been used to bombard coastal cities.
The Moskva gained notoriety early in the war when it called on Ukrainian border troops defending the strategic Snake Island to surrender, only to be defiantly refused.
Buildings destroyed by Russian missiles in the city of Chernihiv, near Kyiv. Source: AAP / Pacific Press/Sipa USA
The crew had been evacuated, the Russian defence ministry told state media, but "the ship was seriously damaged".
Having initially expected to swiftly overcome its neighbour, Russia has faced fierce resistance and now even reprisals in its own territory — leading Moscow on Wednesday to threaten to strike command centres in Kyiv if Ukraine continues to launch attacks on Russian soil.
The warning sparked alarm in Kyiv, which had been experiencing some respite after Russian forces withdrew from the region after failing to secure the capital.
It had been believed that Moscow was refocusing its war aims to the south and east of the country, with Ukrainian authorities warning of bloody new clashes to come in the eastern Donbas region.
The aid package unveiled Wednesday by the US includes armoured personnel carriers and helicopters, as well as some equipment Washington had previously refused to send to Ukraine for fear of escalating the conflict with nuclear-armed Russia.
The Pentagon said it was looking to provide Ukraine with weapons that would "give them a little more range and distance," as the country prepares for an escalation of violence.
No electricity, no water
More than 40,000 people have left the country in the past 24 hours in a desperate attempt to flee the expected offensive, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
This brings those displaced abroad to 4.6 million since the conflict began.
The anticipated Russian onslaught is an apparent attempt to create an unbroken corridor from occupied Crimea to Donbas, where Russian-backed separatists control the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
Part of that push involves taking the key southern port of Mariupol, which Ukrainian forces have struggled to hold and where President Volodymyr Zelenskyy estimates "tens of thousands" of civilians have died.
Russian soldiers patrol at the Mariupol drama theatre — which was bombed on 16 March 16 — on 12 April, 2022. Source: Getty, AFP / Alexander Nemenov
Also in the crosshairs is Severodonetsk — the last easterly city still held by Ukrainian forces — where residents have endured heavy shelling as they pledge not to flee.
About 400 civilians have been buried there since the war began, according to the Ukrainian governor of the Luhansk region Sergiy Gaiday, with locals now grimly awaiting the Russian attack.
"There's no electricity, no water," resident Maria, who lives with her husband and mother-in-law, told news agency AFP. "But I prefer to stay here, at home. If we leave, where will we go?"
"The bombings? It's like this all the time," Maria said as explosions thundered in the distance.
'Our citizens are murdered'
In areas that Russian forces have withdrawn from, officials and residents are piecing together the extent of the devastation left behind.
The Hague-based International Criminal Court, which deals with rights abuses, has dispatched investigators to Ukraine and told reporters the country had become a "crime scene."
"We're here because we have reasonable grounds to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of the court are being committed," the ICC's chief prosecutor Karim Khan said on a visit to Bucha, a town now synonymous with scores of atrocities alleged to have been committed by Russian troops.
Officials in Bucha say more than 400 people were found dead there, with 25 rapes reported.
In nearby Gostomel, up to 400 people are unaccounted for, said regional prosecutor Andiy Tkach.
Two people are seen at the funeral of a person killed during the war with Russia in Bucha, on the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv. Source: AAP / Yaghobzadeh Alfred/ABACA/PA
"Our citizens are murdered and we must bury every person in the right way," said Igor Karpishen, loading the truck.
Ukrainian authorities say Russian troops continue to kill civilians in areas they still occupy.
On Wednesday Ukrainian prosecutors accused soldiers of shooting six men and one woman in a home in the occupied southern village of Pravdyne the day before.
Another four civilians were killed in Russian strikes on second city Kharkiv on Wednesday, local authorities said.
These and other alleged atrocities have led Biden to accuse Mr Putin of genocide — a claim dismissed as "unacceptable" by the Kremlin.
Canadian Prime Minister but France and Germany declined to follow suit, drawing the ire of Mr Zelenskyy, who denounced French leader Emmanuel Macron's stance as "very painful for us".
