UK targets 101 ships in 'largest ever' sanctions against Russia's shadow fleet

The United Kingdom on May 9 announced its “largest ever” sanctions package against Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet,” imposing restrictions on 100 oil tankers and an additional vessel said to be supporting the Russian government.

Moscow’s shadow fleet consists of aging tankers used to circumvent sanctions, including those imposed by the U.K., EU, and U.S. These vessels often operate under obscure ownership structures, use flags of convenience, and evade Western oversight.

London’s latest round of sanctions name 100 shadow fleet tankers that have shipped over $24 billion in cargo since 2024, according to a press release. The penalties also target another ship “involved in obtaining a benefit from or supporting” the Kremlin, as well as several individuals and entities in the Russian energy and financial services sectors.

The sanctions are intended to disrupt Russia’s ability to finance the full-scale war against Ukraine and protect undersea infrastructure from the risks posed by potentially unsafe vessels.

“The threat from Russia to our national security cannot be underestimated, that is why we will do everything in our power to destroy his shadow fleet operation, starve his war machine of oil revenues, and protect the subsea infrastructure that we rely on for our everyday lives,” U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.

The latest sanctions package means that the U.K. has imposed penalties on more shadow fleet vessels than any other country.

Starmer announced the sanctions at a meeting of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), a U.K.-led coalition of 10 northern European NATO countries which met today in Oslo. The JEF in January set up a tracking system to alert allies if a ship poses a threat to undersea cable infrastructure and to monitor Russia’s shadow fleet.

The system was developed after several telecommunication and energy cables underneath the Baltic Sea were damaged over the previous months.

The JEF coalition wants to establish “an enhanced partnership with Ukraine,” providing training and disinformation support to Kyiv while learning from the battlefield experience of Ukrainian troops, according to London.

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Editor’s Note: The identities of Yellow Ribbon activists who live in Russian-occupied territory have been withheld for security reasons. “When my child hears about May 9 they almost scream, and so do I,” an activist with the Ukrainian Yellow Ribbon civil resistance group currently living in the Russian-occupied town of Tokmak in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, tells the Kyiv Independent. “Every week at school, from the very beginning of the semester, my kid has to do something about May 9,’” “We have le

The Kyiv IndependentYuliia Taradiuk