UK slams largest sanction on Russian ‘shadow fleet’

Britain on Thursday announced its largest sanctions to date against Russia’s “shadow fleet” of tankers, used to circumvent a Western embargo on oil exports following its invasion of Ukraine.

The government’s latest crackdown bars 18 ships from UK ports and from accessing British maritime services, bringing the total number of sanctioned vessels to 43.

Experts say the so-called ghost fleet, which operates under opaque ownership or without proper insurance, has allowed the Kremlin to continue exporting oil despite sanctions and a price cap on its global sales.

The shadow fleet has also been accused by the UK of posing a threat to the environment and coastlines due to its flagrant violations of basic safety standards.

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) stated that these sanctions are “starving Putin’s war machine of crucial revenues.”

“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.
AFP

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