The shadow fleet of the Russian Federation: how Russian oil is delivered to EU countries

Despite official restrictions and bans, millions of tons of Russian oil continue to be transported to the European Union. The journalist of «Ukrainian Pravda» Mykhailo Tkach published an investigation and showed the Russian shadow fleet, which delivers oil to various countries.

The video was published on the Ukrainska Pravda YouTube channel.

The publication cites data from the Financial Times that in the first year of the full-scale invasion, the EU paid Russia almost 140 billion euros for oil and gas, which is more than the EU gave Ukraine in aid. About 80 of these 140 billion is oil itself.

Journalist Mykhailo Tkach visited Bulgaria and Romania. With the help of a drone and a camera, he showed footage of oil transshipment in EU countries. He notes that what is recorded is only part of the overall picture.

«Imagine how many such transshipments at sea take place during the year in how many such transshipments take place in other countries: Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain and so on. And the tens and hundreds of millions of euros that Russia earns from its oil in order to continue its aggression... Why do we, ordinary journalists from Ukraine with a camera and a drone, see this, and local authorities, law enforcement agencies, the European Union do not notice this, because this not so difficult to monitor. It is probably beneficial and there is some informal agreement that this should happen. But these are double standards. On the one hand, the civilized world and the European Union declare a fight against dictatorship, and on the other hand, they feed it,» the journalist says.

We will remind that Great Britain imposed sanctions on 30 ships of the Russian «shadow fleet», which were engaged in the transportation of oil and oil products worth billions of pounds. This became the largest package of sanctions.

In general, over the past year, little-known companies in most of the United Arab Emirates have purchased dozens of tankers capable of transporting liquefied natural gas, probably for the Russian «shadow fleet».

As reported, despite the sanctions, about 2.3 billion dollars and euros have been sent to Russia since the United States and the European Union banned the export of their banknotes in March 2022.