On 9 May 2025, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the largest package of sanctions against Russia's 'shadow fleet'. This includes restrictions on 100 tankers, which will be banned from UK ports and may be detained in UK waters. Taking into account previous sanctions packages, this means that the UK is leading the way in terms of the number of Russian 'shadow fleet' vessels sanctioned.
According to the UK government, these tankers form the core of Russia's shadow fleet. Since the beginning of 2024, they have carried more than $24 billion worth of cargo.
Russia uses the 'shadow fleet' to circumvent sanctions restrictions on the sale of oil and oil products. These are mostly older tankers that disable identifiers and often change flags to make them untraceable. They also hide the origin of the oil. According to the Kyiv School of Economics, the 'shadow fleet' transported 78% of Russian crude oil and 30% of oil products in February 2025. The revenues from oil sales are used by Russia to finance its war against Ukraine.
'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,' Starmer said.
Sanctions will also be imposed on unseaworthy vessels that damage critical infrastructure, such as submarine cables in Europe.
According to Vladyslav Vlasiuk, the presidential commissioner for sanctions policy, 43 out of 100 tankers were among Ukraine's proposed sanctions.
