Norway seizes Russian ship in Svalbard to compensate Ukraine

Norwegian courts have ordered the seizure of a Russian ship in the Arctic to enforce part of a $4.22 billion (roughly €3.6 billion) compensation claim won by Ukrainian state energy firm Naftogaz after Moscow's seizure of its assets in Crimea , which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

Officials announced that the ship had been stopped from departing the port in the Russian coal mining settlement of Barentsburg in the Svalbard archipelago late on Wednesday.

Svalbard has been Norwegian territory since 1925 but is a demilitarized zone where people from dozens of countries, Russia included, can settle without visas under certain conditions.

Russia's ambassador to Norway said that Moscow would pursue the ship's release through legal channels.

The first group to announce the ship's seizure was Covington, the US law firm representing Naftogaz as it tries to secure the compensation awarded to it by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague in 2023.

Russia had refused to pay the fine plus legal fees and interest amid its ongoing war with Ukraine , and Naftogaz has since begun trying to secure the seizure and forced sale of Russian commercial assets via local courts instead.

"Russia cannot evade ​responsibility simply by refusing to comply with an international arbitral award," said Naftogaz acting CEO Sergii Fedorenko.

Covington said it had been tracking the ship, the Professor Molchanov , for months. It said its application was approved on Monday by the Nord-Troms and Senja District Court, which ordered Svalbard's governor to ensure the ship stayed in dock once it arrived.