Russia's “shadow” fleet includes 230 tankers from the US and EU - media
Kyiv • UNN
The investigation revealed that one-third of Russia's “shadow fleet” consists of tankers sold by US and EU companies after the war began. The sale brought billions of euros to the former owners.
The Russian "shadow fleet", which exports oil from Russia bypassing international sanctions, includes 230 tankers previously owned by companies from the United States and Europe. This is evidenced by the results of an investigation by an international journalistic consortium, DW reports, UNN writes.
Details
It is noted that all these vessels, which make up more than a third of Moscow's "shadow fleet," were sold to Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, that is, when prices for used tankers doubled compared to the year before the war, German TV channels NDR and WDR report.
According to these data, the sale of the vessels brought billions of euros to their former owners, including German ones. Between 2022 and 2024, 11 tankers were sold to Russia that previously belonged to German shipping companies and are now part of Russia's "shadow fleet." The ship owners earned about 200 million euros from these transactions alone, the report said.
In particular, the investigation mentions the sale of tankers by the shipping companies Schulte and Chemikalien Seetransport GmbH from Hamburg, as well as Salamon AG from Dortmund.
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The sale of tankers to the "shadow fleet" is not illegal, the TV channels note. At the same time, shipowners entering into such agreements had a clear idea of where these tankers would end up, said Michelle Bockman, an expert at Lloyds List Intelligence.
The German Shipowners' Association (VDR), in response to a journalist's request, called the data "an alarming development." The sale of ships should be carried out with due responsibility, especially given the geopolitical tensions, the VDR said. Profit from the sale of tankers should not be achieved at the expense of safety or ethical principles, the association emphasized.
Addendum
The Russian "shadow fleet," estimated by the Kyiv School of Economics at more than 650 vessels, came into focus in 2024 not only because of the illegal transportation of Russian oil but also because of incidents involving damage to infrastructure in the Baltic Sea.
In particular, one of the shadow fleet's vessels was suspected of deliberately damaging the Estlink-2 submarine communication cable in the Gulf of Finland at the end of 2024. Therefore, the European military, intelligence services, and politicians consider the Russian "shadow fleet" to be a significant security threat.
