The recent operation by British commandos on the tanker “Smyrtos”, which belongs to the “shadow fleet”, was the latest in a series of incidents linked to all types of watercraft – tankers, liquefied natural gas carriers or container ships – that bypass Western sanctions and transport Russian oil products, mainly to Asia, effectively financing the Russian war in Ukraine.
In early June, 400 nautical miles west of the coast of Brittany, French authorities intercepted the Cameroon-flagged Tagor, which had started its journey from the Russian port of Murmansk.
Months ago, the French authorities acted similarly in the case of the ships “Deyna” and “Boracay”, which carried the flags of Mozambique and Benin respectively, while in late 2024 the ship “Eagle S”, flagged by the Cook Islands, caused damage to undersea telecommunications cables in the Gulf of Finland, triggering the intervention of the Finnish coast guard and police. And of course there is also the case of the explosive-laden Ukrainian drone in Lefkada, which probably targeted the “shadow fleet” tanker.
According to the rating agency S&P, the fleet numbers around 1,000 ships, representing 17%-18.5% of the global fleet
The number of ships and the destinations
Based on the methodology of the leading shipping newspaper “Lloyd’s List”, a ship is defined as part of the “shadow fleet” if it is 15 years old or older (due to very high charges from insurance companies), its ownership status is unknown or has a corporate structure designed to hide the true owner, is active exclusively in the trade of petroleum products subject to sanctions and is involved in deceptive shipping practices. practices.
The latter include methods such as repeated changes of registration flag, transfer of petroleum products in the middle of the ocean, deliberate alteration, interference or falsification of the digital data transmitted through the AIS (Automatic Identification System) security system.
“The size of the “shadow fleet” ranges from 1,200 to 1,500 ships, bearing in mind that we are not talking about an officially registered fleet, which justifies different estimates from different analysts and companies” says in “Vima” n Elizabeth Brougha fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, specializing in hybrid threat issues. It adds that more than 700 relate exclusively to Russian activities.
A more conservative assessment is made by the S&P rating agency, which estimates that the fleet numbers around 1,000 ships, representing 17%-18.5% of the global fleet. 591 of them traffic Russian oil and gas. Main destinations of Russian oil products are markets such as China, India, Turkey and Brazil.
They support Putin’s war machine
The practice of the “shadow fleet” is not a Russian “innovation”. The first version of the phenomenon goes back to the apartheid regime in South Africa, which in the 70s and 80s tried to avoid the embargo imposed on it by a number of countries. In the second decade of the 21st century, first Iran and then Venezuela resorted to the same method to circumvent Washington and EU economic sanctions.
According to the Brookings Institute, Russia has had dozens of such ships in its possession since the middle of the last decade. But the need to circumvent repeated packages of economic sanctions imposed on it after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has led to a surge, tripling the number of ships serving Russian needs. Since according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) oil revenues make up about a quarter of the Russian budget, the Kremlin has turned to the “shadow fleet” to support Russia’s war economy.
$80 – 100 billion in revenue per year
The vessels had been purchased through third countries, mainly from companies based in the United Arab Emirates. Research by the rating agency S&P Global reports that in 2022, 864 newly established shipping companies linked to Russia appeared in the UAE. The main sea routes used by these ships are the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the Denmark Strait, the English Channel, the Black Sea and by extension the Mediterranean, which explains why these areas have become theaters of conflict. Today, Moscow’s profits from the activities of the “shadow fleet” are estimated at 80 to 100 billion dollars a year, according to the Finnish Center for Energy Studies.
The presence of the “shadow fleet” in the seas around Europe is not just causing diplomatic tensions. It is accompanied by damage to marine energy and communications infrastructure, working conditions at the limits of exploitation and an extremely negative energy footprint for the environment. In the event of an oil spill, cleanup costs in Europe can reach $8,595 per ton of oil, while the total bill for the coastal country could exceed $1 billion, according to the Kyiv University of Economics. The International Labor Organization (ILO) points out that 66% of abandoned ships in 2025 were involved in “shadow fleet” activities.
Since it is widely accepted that this fleet poses a problem to freedom of navigation, environmental safety and probably the human rights of the crews, is there a solution? “Emphasis must be placed on cooperation between states that have signed the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. If this cooperation is sealed by an exchange of information or joint patrols between the authorities of the contracting states, even better” emphasizes Brow, reminding however that Russia is also a party, although it violates the rules of the Convention.
