Russia’s shadow fleet pass through English Channel despite Starmer’s boarding threat
More than two dozen ships from Russia’s so-called ‘shadow fleet’ have continued to pass through British waters despite Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently giving the military powers to detain ships exporting Russian oil.
Analysis of ship tracking data by Reuters reveals that sanctioned oil tankers are still passing through England’s south coast in the same volumes as before the government’s announcement last week.
British officials said less than a week ago that the military was preparing to board ships for sanctions violations, in the hope that this public warning would force ships to take longer routes away from British territory.
Moscow condemned the move as “extremely hostile” and hinted at possible retaliation.
However, since this announcement, the British military has not reported any landing operations, while at least 25 sanctioned ships have entered British waters through the Channel, Reuters found.
James Fennell, a former British naval officer, suggested that any military intervention would likely be selective due to operational complexities, potential legal challenges and the serious risk that it would take Britain “one step closer to war with Russia”.
He added: “The government hopes the threat will act as a deterrent and will gauge its impact before approving a potentially risky boarding operation.” “They will use back channels to tell Russia to cease and desist,” Fennell concluded.
The Ministry of Defense said any enforcement action would be “assessed on a case-by-case basis” and that it would not provide “an ongoing comment” on potential action.
Starmer said last Wednesday evening that Russian President Vladimir Putin allowed the boarding and detention of Russian ships to prevent them from making “dirty profits” from the sharp increase in oil prices due to the US-Israeli war with Iran.
Russian ships in the so-called shadow tanker fleet that Moscow uses to finance its four-year war against Ukraine are passing through the Canal, the most convenient route for traveling between the Baltic and Southern Europe and beyond.
Other European countries, including France, Belgium and Sweden, have boarded and detained ships in recent months to disrupt the shipping network.
Trump this month temporarily eased sanctions on Russian oil as part of his administration’s attempt to rein in energy prices.
Britain has imposed sanctions on 544 Russian stay-behind fleet ships, meaning they are banned from entering British ports and could be detained, according to the government.
Maritime data and intelligence company Pole Star Global said nearly two dozen of these ships have been sailing through British waters on average per week since the beginning of this year.
Douglas Guilfoyle, a professor at the University of New South Wales who specializes in maritime security, said Britain had to rely on untested legal arguments to board Russian ships even though it had sanctions on them.
Guilfoyle said there were only two clear legal grounds for detaining the ships: the U.N. Security Council’s sanctions regime, which is not currently in force, or to treat the seizures as a “countermeasure” in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine, which he described as a “new and untested” legal argument.
“There are very limited exceptions that would justify interference with the right of transit or the right of innocent passage of a foreign ship – even if subject to autonomous sanctions by the UK,” he said.
Brett Erickson, a sanctions expert at consultancy firm Obsidian Risk Advisors, said the British government appears weak because it has said it is ready to detain Russian ships but has not yet taken any action.
“You can’t participate half and half with sanctions, you have to be all in or all out,” he said.
