On Thursday, Britain unveiled its largest sanctions yet against Russia’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers, a covert network that has been instrumental in bypassing Western restrictions on oil exports imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This latest action by the UK government prohibits 18 ships from docking at British ports and denies them access to British maritime services. This brings the total number of vessels under UK sanctions to 43. These tankers, part of the so-called “ghost fleet,” operate under murky ownership structures or without adequate insurance, enabling the Kremlin to continue exporting oil despite global sanctions and a price cap.
According to experts, the shadow fleet’s clandestine operations have allowed Russia to maintain oil exports, which provide a vital financial lifeline to its economy. However, these ships have also drawn criticism from the UK government for their disregard of basic safety standards, which poses serious environmental risks and threatens coastal areas.
The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) emphasized that the sanctions are intended to cut off essential revenue streams that fund Russia’s war efforts. “A significant number of the ships targeted by the UK to date have been forced to sit idling, uselessly, outside ports,” the FCDO stated.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy, reaffirming his commitment to intensifying pressure on Russia, said, “I have made it my personal mission to constrain the Kremlin, tightening the net around Putin and his mafia state using every tool at my disposal.”
Nevertheless, a recent report by the Kyiv School of Economics found that despite Western sanctions, the volume of Russian oil shipped through these shadow tankers has nearly doubled, reaching 4.1 million barrels per day by June 2024. The report estimates that around 70 percent of Russia’s seaborne oil exports are conducted using ghost tankers.
Among the vessels targeted in this new wave of UK sanctions are those owned by Sovcomflot, Russia’s largest shipping company. In addition, sanctions were imposed on four LNG tankers and Rusgazdobycha JSC, a Russian gas company.
