The Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense has released new data on the captains steering Russia's elusive "shadow" tanker fleet. Captains hold ultimate authority on a ship, possessing vital knowledge about its ownership, the value of its cargo, and the vessel’s conditions. According to this fresh disclosure on the War&Sanctions website, information about 57 captains and 45 vessels involved in transporting sanctioned oil is now in the public domain.

Some of these tankers have been linked to transporting Russian oil from the Arctic and servicing significant projects like Sakhalin-1, Sakhalin-2, Sakhalin-3, Prirazlomnoye, and Novy Port.

The total now stands at data on 89 captains released by the intelligence, with some already under sanction. The directorate emphasizes the power concentrated in captains’ hands, noting their conscious violations of international rules. These range from manipulating AIS and LRIT systems, employing spoofing tactics, falsifying logbooks, to performing ship-to-ship transfers which help evade sanctions placed by over 30 countries, posing potential ecological risks and threatening to block vital maritime routes.

The intelligence service urges the maritime industry and crewing companies to cease collaboration with such captains, warning of inevitable accountability. Companies enabling these captains' employment should face sanctions.

European countries are reportedly considering extensive detentions of Russian tankers in the Baltic Sea to close Moscow’s loopholes around sanctions.

Previously, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on European Union nations to impose sanctions against Russia's "shadow fleet".

  War in Ukraine, Shadow Fleet

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