New EU sanctions to blacklist 120 Russian oil ships amid drone, spill risks

The EU plans to add 120 vessels to its 19th round of sanctions on Russia’s so‑called “shadow fleet,” taking the total listed ships to 568, and laying legal groundwork to stop at least 16 stateless tankers from operating freely in the Baltic, internal documents, leaked to EUobserver show.

Blacklisting bars the ships from calling at EU ports or dealing with European firms (insurance, bunkering, etc.).

Until now, the blacklist had a limited effect because many shadow‑fleet vessels don’t use EU ports and rely on the “right of innocent passage” under UNCLOS and the 1857 Treaty of Copenhagen. But UNCLOS Article 110 allows interception of ships that are “without nationality,” and 16 of the newly named tankers appear to have no genuine flag, according to leaked files and industry databases.

The 16 named stateless vessels include Adonia, Apate, Apus, Aquilla II, Bolu, Briont, Ethera, Everdine, Leona, Manaslu, Myra, Nemrut, Omni/Evali, Samos, Tagor and Tassos.

Enforcement will be politically sensitive. When Estonia tried to stop the stateless Jaguar in May, Russia scrambled a Su‑35 into Estonian airspace.

France, however, detained the previously blacklisted Boracay on 1 October and arrested two crew over a fake Benin flag; Putin denounced the move as “piracy,” while President Macron said further actions would follow and announced plans for an EU/NATO “policy of obstruction.”

The shadow fleet problem is complicated by pervasive false‑flagging and fraudulent registries. Major flag states named for the wider 120 list include Palau, Panama and Comoros, with smaller numbers from many other registries.

Analysts say some flag states delist sanctioned ships under diplomatic pressure, but fraudulent online registries and opaque ownership structures — SPVs, nominee directors and multi‑layered shell companies — make accountability difficult.

Operational risks go beyond sanctions: many dark‑fleet tankers are old or unsafe, often lack valid insurance, and have been linked to oil spills and undersea cable‑cutting incidents in the Baltic. Investigations are probing whether commercial vessels launched drones that disrupted Danish airports; experts warn the shadow fleet is being weaponised to cloak hostile activity at sea.

Industry and analysts argue the EU blacklist is necessary but not sufficient: ports and authorities outside Europe may still service flagged or unflagged ships, and recovering costs from phantom owners after an environmental disaster would be extremely difficult.

Ukraine has urged that four additional vessels be added to the 19th sanctions list.

By Tamilla Hasanova