Although the ship is flying the Panamanian flag, German authorities have blamed Russia for the incident.
“Russia endangers our European security not only with its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, but also with severed cables, displaced border buoys, disinformation campaigns, GPS jamming and, as we have seen, half-destroyed oil tankers,” the German foreign minister said. in the statement.
Last December, the European Union said it was working on measures, including sanctions, aimed at “Russia’s shadow fleet, which threatens security and the environment while funding Russia’s military budget.”
The European bloc’s comments came after undersea cables in the Baltic Sea were damaged by a suspected vessel that the EU believes was part of Russia’s shadow fleet.
The move was another move by Western countries to strike at the Kremlin’s oil industry in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Since tougher embargo measures were imposed to stop Russia from exporting oil, Moscow is believed to be using ships with an unclear title holder to transport goods, namely oil, around the world.
According to the Atlantic Council, a US think tank, Russia is “instrumentalizing the dark navy, using it especially as the main pipeline for oil exports.”
The shadow fleet, or dark fleet, is the name given to outdated ships that sail “without standard Western industry insurance, have opaque ownership, frequently change their names and flag registrations, and generally operate outside the rules of the sea,” according to the Atlantic Council. .
The latest incident in the Baltic Sea occurred at a time when Washington and London joined forces for direct sanctions against the energy companies Gazprom Nafta and Surgutnaftagaz.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the move to weaken Russian oil companies would “deplete Russia’s military chest”, adding that funds taken “from Putin’s hands are helping to save Ukrainian lives”.
But Gazprom Nafta called the sanctions “baseless” and “illegitimate,” according to Russian state news agencies.
Also on Friday, the US Treasury Department said it had imposed sanctions on 183 vessels that are “part of the shadow fleet, as well as oil tankers owned by Russian fleet operators.”
