Name: On the front line of Russia’s shadow fleet | BBC News
Uploaded: 2025-11-20T16:56:05.000Z
Duration: 3 min 28 s
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The risk surrounding Russia's shadow fleet of oil tankers is escalating.

Relative clauses (Restrictive vs. nonrestrictive)

Maritime authorities are reporting a sharp spike in vessels sailing without a valid flag, which could mean they aren't insured for an accident or a spill.

Seaborne energy exports continue to generate billions for Russia as the Kremlin wages war in Ukraine.

Our Europe correspondent Jessica Parker reports from the Baltic Sea.

In Estonian waters, a countdown for the detonation of Second World War explosives.

A cleanup operation from conflicts of the past.

But this stretch of water is the site of very present tensions.

The Baltic is a highway for Russia's Shadow fleet.

A fleet made up of hundreds of tankers accused of bypassing Western oil sanctions which help generate billions for Russia.

Some ships are even suspected of sabotage.

We have at any given time in Estonian waters anywhere between five and 10 vessels that are actually part of the so called shadow fleet.

One sanctioned tanker on the Baltic when we were was Unity.

In the last month it sailed down the North Sea, turned east and anchored outside a Russian oil terminal.

Its listed owner hasn't responded to requests for comment, but

maritime records show it's claimed several flags in five years, including that of the landlocked African Kingdom of Lesotho.

Cases of so called false flagging have spiked as sanctions have intensified.

If there was an accident, then good luck with trying to find, you know, somebody responsible to pick up any cost whatsoever because it's just not possible.

How much of a threat do you think the Shadow Fleet is?

The Shadow Fleet is an accident waiting to happen to the western end of the Baltic, where the Swedes also fear a catastrophic oil spill.

Patrols like this, we're told, are running round the clock.

They want to show a presence in these waters.

But it's also about going out and gathering information.

The Coast Guard radios a sanctioned tanker.

That means it can't dock in Sweden, but it can sail past.

Would you say that the response to the Shadow Fleet is actually quite weak?

Another way to put it is that the reaction is as strong as it can be according to the rule based order.

I think you have to think at least twice before entering.

Let's call it a gray zone where you are challenging the freedom of the seas.

Moscow says it's the west that's undermined global commerce.

The ripples of Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine now disturbing old rules of the sea.