{"id":193759,"date":"2025-06-18T07:02:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T07:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/193759\/"},"modified":"2025-06-18T07:02:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T07:02:17","slug":"australian-government-places-sanctions-on-60-vessels-in-russias-shadow-fleet-of-oil-tankers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/193759\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian government places sanctions on 60 vessels in Russia’s shadow fleet of oil tankers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Australian government has imposed sanctions on 60 vessels<\/a> in Russia’s shadow fleet of oil tankers for the first time.<\/p>\n

The shadow fleet is a collection of hundreds of rusting tankers covertly carrying Russian crude oil around the world, according to the European Union (EU).<\/p>\n

Australia is at risk in sabotage ‘shadow war’<\/a><\/p>\n

Experts say the use of sabotage as a weapon of war could become more common, after a spike in mysterious incidents across Europe.<\/p>\n

Alongside the EU, Australia’s partners Canada and Britain also have current sanctions on the shadow fleet.<\/p>\n

In a statement, a spokesperson for Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong said: “The sanctions reinforce Australia’s consistent commitment to ensuring Russia, and those enabling its illegal invasion of Ukraine, face consequences.”<\/p>\n

According to the sanctions<\/a>, the government may direct a sanctioned vessel to leave Australia, including by a particular route, and refuse it entry into a port or any place in the country.<\/p>\n

“Russia uses these vessels to circumvent international sanctions and sustain its illegal and immoral war against Ukraine,” the statement adds.<\/p>\n

“Operating under deceptive practices, including flag-hopping, disabling tracking systems, and operating with inadequate insurance, the shadow fleet enables the illicit trade of Russian oil and other sanctioned goods.”<\/p>\n

These are the first specific sanctions Australia has imposed on Russian vessels, however, the government has imposed more than 1,400 sanctions on Russia over the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The government has repeatedly denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as illegal and immoral.<\/p>\n

“We will continue to take coordinated and decisive action to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and disrupt Russia’s ability to fund its aggression,” the statement from Penny Wong’s office added.<\/p>\n

\"Putin<\/p>\n

Putin is using the shadow fleet to fund his war, according to the EU. (Reuters: Sputnik\/Alexander Kazakov)<\/p>\n

“Australia once again calls on Russia to immediately end this war and withdraw from Ukrainian territory. We remain steadfast in our support for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine.”<\/p>\n

Last month, Canberra condemned a “sham trial” in which a Russian-controlled court sentenced Australian Oscar Jenkins to 13 years in a penal colony after he was captured while fighting for Ukraine.<\/p>\n

What is the shadow fleet?<\/p>\n

Russia’s shadow fleet consists of aging vessels with obscure ownership acquired to evade Western sanctions amid the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The exact number of shadow vessels remains unknown, however, S&P Global estimates there are 591 shadow fleet tankers operating in the Russian oil trade.<\/p>\n

The fleet flies the flags of various countries and employs a variety of murky tactics to conceal the origins of its cargo.<\/p>\n

Inside the mission to stop Putin’s ‘ghost ships’ wreaking havoc on the seas<\/a><\/p>\n

After a crucial undersea power cable was cut unexpectedly on Christmas Day, NATO forces sprang into action. Their mission? Stopping Russia’s “ghost ships”.<\/p>\n

Approximately 44 per cent of Russia’s shadow fleet is owned and managed by companies from the United Arab Emirates, the KSE Institute says.<\/p>\n

Economists at the KSE Institute say Russia’s shadow fleet allows it to evade the price cap for a large share of its oil exports.<\/p>\n

In September 2024, 92 per cent of seaborne crude oil was transported without the involvement of EU services, allowing Russia to generate close to $US8 billion ($13 billion) in extra earnings from January 2024.<\/p>\n

The shadow fleet has also been linked to a growing number of undersea cable damage incidents in the Baltic Sea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These incidents have sprung NATO allies into action<\/a>, with joint forces from 11 member nations signing up to tackle sabotage at sea.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the European Commission proposed an 18th package of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The proposal lists more vessels that make up the shadow fleet and also targets oil trading companies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australian government has imposed sanctions on 60 vessels in Russia’s shadow fleet of oil tankers for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[10638,1699,79052,45770,332,2663,52867,657,18623],"class_list":{"0":"post-193759","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-crude-oil","9":"tag-european-union","10":"tag-oil-tankers","11":"tag-penny-wong","12":"tag-russia","13":"tag-sanctions","14":"tag-shadow-fleet","15":"tag-ukraine","16":"tag-vessels"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114703090486832255","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}