Putin's shadow fleet dumps oil into European seas, alarming EU - Politico
Russian tankers pollute European waters with oil discharges (photo: Getty Images)
Russian shadow fleet tankers continue to dump oil off the coast of Europe despite sanctions, indicating the inability of European countries to curb this activity, Politico reports.
Over the past year, at least five tankers from the Russian armada evading sanctions have freely operated in European waters after dumping oil, according to investigations by the nonprofit journalism group SourceMaterial and Politico.
Two of these vessels were already subject to British sanctions before leaving oil traces in the sea.
These new revelations are also based on satellite imagery from the SkyTruth NGO and shipping data from the Kpler platform, providing a continuation of Politico's 2024 investigation that documented oil spills.
European reaction to Russian tanker oil dumping
These incidents are "a huge problem," said Latvian Energy Minister Kaspars Melnis.
According to him, Europeans are fortunate that they have not yet faced an environmental catastrophe.
"The shadow fleet is (Russian President Vladimir - ed.) Putin's desperate and dangerous attempt to cling onto his oil profits and polluting the sea in the meantime," the publication cites a spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office as saying.
EU could pay billions of euros for water cleanup
According to estimates by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, cleaning up a major oil spill caused by a tanker could cost up to 1.4 billion euros.
This bill will likely fall on European taxpayers if the responsible vessel cannot be found.
The European Union is preparing legal grounds to stop Russia's shadow fleet tankers in the Baltic Sea.
Currently, every sixth tanker in the world belongs to Russia's shadow fleet, accounting for approximately 17% of the global tanker fleet.
Analysts have counted 940 vessels in Russia's shadow fleet since the beginning of this year, a figure 45% higher than the same period last year.
