Russia has begun to protect its “shadow fleet”

For the first time, Moscow has sent a warship to escort tankers from the “shadow fleet” carrying Russian oil through the English Channel. This was reported to All Exclusive by Mark Douglas, a maritime situational awareness analyst at New Zealand’s Starboard Maritime Intelligence (SMI), as reported by The Insider.

The expert was tracking the movement of three vessels: the tanker SELVA (NOSTOS/NAXOS), which is under British sanctions, the vessel SIERRA (Suvorovsky Prospekt), which fell under restrictions from the UK and the EU, and the Russian Navy corvette Boykiy of the Steregushchiy class.

According to automatic identification systems (AIS), the two “shadow” tankers and the warship began coordinated movement on June 16 and simultaneously entered the English Channel, moving towards Russian ports to load oil. According to Douglas, Moscow has thus moved to openly defending its “shadow fleet” with military force, and its actions will test the international community’s readiness for escalation and resolve in the context of tough measures to enforce the sanctions regime.

According to the transmitted AIS signals, the SELVA tanker was sailing under the Panamanian flag, but it later became known that the vessel changed jurisdiction to Palau, investigators note, citing S&P data. SMI reported that they continue to track the tankers and record changes in their behavior.

At the end of May, Finnish Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen reported that Russia had begun to escort tankers involved in the transportation of its oil in the Gulf of Finland. “Russia is escorting commercial tankers from its shadow fleet in the narrow passage of the Gulf of Finland. In this case, military ships and armed forces are involved,” he noted, noting that such actions by the Russian Federation are unprecedented.

Earlier, on May 13, Estonia attempted to detain the “shadow” tanker Jaguar. A helicopter, an airplane, and a naval patrol boat were involved in the operation. Then Russia sent a Su-35 fighter jet, which violated NATO airspace to escort the vessel to the port of Primorsk in the Leningrad Region. On May 18, Russia responded by detaining the tanker Green Admire, which left the Estonian port of Sillamae with a cargo of shale oil.