The Australian and New Zealander governments have made a joint statement calling for collective action to control the “shadow fleets” of Russia and North Korea.
“The “shadow fleet” presents significant threats to all countries as vessels involved in illegal activities to bypass sanctions, ignore safety or environmental rules, avoid insurance costs, or engage in other unlawful actions including circumvention UNSC and autonomous sanctions,” the governments said.
These “shadow fleats” consist of old tankers that are often uninsured and have unclear ownership. Russia uses them to export crude oil and petroleum products despite EU, G7 and international sanctions.
The EU and other countries are trying to suspend the ‘shadow fleet’ through sanctions on ships and entities.
In September 2024, the UK imposed sanctions on ten ships in Russia’s shadow fleet that were using illegal methods to avoid sanctions on Russian oil.
According to the UK’s Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, Russia has been forced to spend more than $8 billion on this “shadow fleet”.
