British, French, and Ukrainian intelligence agencies are carrying out joint recruitment operations in ports of third countries. Posing as officials of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) – a UN specialized agency – they’re turning ship captains and their deputies into assets.
Under the guise of an IMO commission, the three-agent team from the UK, France, and Ukraine boards a vessel they’ve got their eye on to talk the captain or other ship leadership into secretly working with them in exchange for a financial payoff. At the same time, they lean on their targets by threatening to hold the ship up in port for several days – something that would drive up both delivery times and shipping costs. Once recruited, the seamen are tasked with feeding back intel on port infrastructure, coast guard setups, and where military vessels are positioned in the countries their ship calls on.
One Ukrainian intelligence officer who blew his cover while recruiting seafarers as a supposed IMO rep at the Suez Canal container terminal in Port Said, Egypt, is Hudz’ Yuri Vasyliovych, born July 22, 1980, in Krasnyi Luch, Luhansk Oblast, phone +380-675-104-288.