an important source of income<\/a> for Russia against the background of its military operations in Ukraine.<\/p>\nAlexander Lord, a defense analyst at the London-based intelligence firm Sibylline, told Al Jazeera that the sanctions have increased costs and made it more difficult for Moscow, but have not completely prevented Russia from continuing to export large volumes of oil.<\/p>\n
“Russia has a significant customer base and continues to trade its oil at a deep discount, particularly to countries like India and China,” Lord said.<\/p>\n
“Sanctions undoubtedly create problems for the Russian economy. But we are already in the fifth year of a full-scale invasion (of Ukraine), and Russia is still exporting large volumes of oil.<\/p>\n
“Russia is constantly trying to find loopholes to protect its fleet, using shadow fleet ships, changing names and ownership structures to evade sanctions and investigations.”<\/p>\n
Why did the UK act now?<\/h2>\n
Many observers say the real question is why Britain has not taken action until now.<\/p>\n
The move follows Starmer’s announcement in March that UK authorities would be given the power to stop, board and detain sanctioned vessels transiting British waters.<\/p>\n
According to the Ministry of Defence, Britain has imposed sanctions on more than 500 vessels linked to Russia’s shadow fleet, and these measures have led to a 24 percent drop in Russian oil and gas revenues in 2025 compared to the previous year.<\/p>\n
Defense analyst and historian Peter Caddick-Adams told Al Jazeera: “The authority for this operation has been in place since March. That month, Starmer agreed that British armed forces and law enforcement could stop, board and detain authorized shadow fleet vessels under international law.<\/p>\n
“This legal framework has been in place for 11 weeks. In those 11 weeks, over 200 sanctioned tankers have sailed through the UK’s exclusive economic zone. Unchecked. Unchallenged.”<\/p>\n
British media reports that the start of such operations has been delayed due to legal issues and the potentially high cost of storing the seized vessels.<\/p>\n
The operation follows a broader Western effort targeting Russia’s shadow fleet.<\/p>\n
Lord added that the United States, with the help of the Royal Navy, seized a Russian-linked tanker off Scotland in January. “This operation marked the beginning of a new phase of shadow fleet interdictions,” he said.<\/p>\n
“This set a clear precedent for the subsequent boarding action. Shortly afterwards there was a flurry of activity around the legal rationale for the UK to act unilaterally.”<\/p>\n
France has also detained several vessels suspected of transporting sanctioned Russian oil. In January, the French authorities confiscated the Grinch tanker, and in March they detained the Dane, which was sailing from Murmansk under the flag of Mozambique.<\/p>\n
Finland, Sweden and Estonia have similarly stepped up inspections and enforcement actions against vessels suspected of helping Russia evade sanctions.<\/p>\n
“Russia disputes the French and British legal framework for such actions, arguing that they contravene the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,” Lord said. “The British and French argue that existing provisions of their laws justify the bans. These legal disputes could drag on for years.”<\/p>\n
How can this operation affect the export of Russian oil?<\/h2>\n
Ukraine welcomed the takeover, and President Zelensky thanked Starmer and the British people for their “principled determination”.<\/p>\n
“Russia’s hubris, fueled by high oil and gas revenues, paved the way for this war, and every decision by partners that deprives Russia of money also limits the war itself,” Zelensky wrote in his X message.<\/p>\n
Analysts say the seizure is unlikely to significantly disrupt Russia’s overall oil exports, but could increase costs and force some vessels to take longer routes to avoid controls.<\/p>\n
Avoiding the English Channel adds about 926 km (500 nautical miles) to the journey of a tanker from Russia bound for the Suez Canal. Instead, tankers will also have to cross the North Atlantic, a much more difficult route with higher costs and risk.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think it changes the big picture,” Lord said. “Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea, near St. Petersburg, will remain the main destination and ships will continue to transit this route.<\/p>\n
“Russia’s response is likely to be asymmetrical. There is a possibility that Russian ships will change their sailing routes. We have already seen examples of ships taking a longer route around the UK to reduce risk.”<\/p>\n
Can Russia take revenge?<\/h2>\n
Lord said that while there is potential for tensions to escalate, Russia has so far shown little reaction to similar French takeovers.<\/p>\n
Caddick-Adams also played down the possibility of revenge. “There have been no repercussions for other countries taking on board shadow fleet tankers, and there are none expected to happen for the UK,” he said.<\/p>\n
He added that the shadow tanker fleet, which is mostly aging and poorly maintained, is designed to evade sanctions through false registrations, limited insurance coverage and clandestine movements.<\/p>\n
“The shadow fleet is used to avoid sanctions against oil and oil products produced in Russia,” Caddick-Adams said. “This operation simply makes it more difficult for Moscow to move its oil around the world.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
British forces seized a Russian-linked oil tanker suspected of violating sanctions while transiting the English Channel on Sunday, in what Prime Minister Keir Starmer described as a major setback for Moscow’s funding efforts war in Ukraine. “This successful operation deals another blow to Russia and reminds (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s warmongers in Ukraine that we …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[56,257,331,79,332,70,53,335,333,334,337,336],"class_list":["post-1336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-energy","tag-europe","tag-explanation","tag-middle-east","tag-military","tag-news","tag-oil-gas","tag-russia","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-shipping","tag-uk","tag-ukraine"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xrpfaucet.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xrpfaucet.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xrpfaucet.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xrpfaucet.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xrpfaucet.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xrpfaucet.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xrpfaucet.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xrpfaucet.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xrpfaucet.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xrpfaucet.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}