Alarm over ‘exploding’ rise in use of sanctions-busting shadow fleet

The shadow fleet itself is not a new threat,” said Gonzalo Saiz Erausquin, a research fellow at the finance and security centre at the Royal United Services Institute thinktank. “But [it] has expanded drastically after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. That saw what we call the shadow fleet explode to some 900-1,200 vessels globally...It is not highly structured or homogeneous. These are vessels that Russian interests are able to purchase second-hand, opaquely owned tankers or owned by companies prepared to engage in illicit activity.”