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The United Kingdom government on Thursday introduced its largest set of sanctions to date, aimed squarely at Russia’s covert tanker fleet, which has played a crucial role in evading the Western oil export embargo enacted after the Ukraine invasion.
As part of its latest wave of sanctions, the UK government has barred 18 additional ships from docking at British ports or using UK maritime services, raising the total number of sanctioned vessels to 43. The move intensifies the country’s efforts to curb Russia’s ability to bypass international restrictions.
The so-called “ghost fleet,” which often sails under unclear ownership and lacks proper insurance, has been instrumental in allowing Russia to bypass sanctions and continue exporting oil, according to experts. This fleet helps the Kremlin defy the global price cap on its sales.
The UK has also accused the shadow fleet of being a serious threat to the environment and coastlines, pointing to its blatant disregard for basic safety standards.
These violations, they claim, significantly raise the risk of oil spills and other environmental disasters as these tankers operate under little to no regulatory oversight.
The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) emphasized that the new sanctions aim to “starve Putin’s war machine of crucial revenues,” cutting off a significant financial lifeline for Russia’s continued aggression in Ukraine.
By targeting the shadow fleet, the FCDO believes they are directly hindering the Kremlin’s ability to fund its military operations through illicit oil exports.
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“A significant number of the ships targeted by the UK to date have been forced to sit idling, uselessly, outside ports,” the FCDO added in a statement.
“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,” said Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
However, a report this week by the Kyiv School of Economics found that the volume of Russian oil exported via shadow tankers had nearly doubled to 4.1 million barrels a day in the year to June 2024.
Despite Western sanctions, 70 percent of Russian oil exports by sea are conducted using ghost tankers, according to the report.
The ships targeted in the new UK sanctions package include some owned by Sovcomflot, Russia’s largest shipping company.
Britain’s foreign ministry also announced sanctions against four LNG tankers and the Russian gas company Rusgazdobycha JSC.
