184 Sanctioned Russia-Linked Ships Made 238 UK Water Transits Since March Threat
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · May 12
184 Sanctioned Russia-Linked Ships Made 238 UK Water Transits Since March Threat
13 articles · Updated · BBC.com · May 12
BBC Verify tracked 184 UK-sanctioned vessels making 238 journeys through UK waters from March 25 to May 11, weeks after Keir Starmer said forces could board them.
94 of those passages briefly entered UK territorial waters and most crossed the English Channel, yet the government has not publicly said any vessel was boarded or seized.
The MoD said it is "disrupting and deterring" the shadow fleet and has challenged more than 700 suspected vessels since October 2024, but gave no operational details.
Legal limits may explain the gap between policy and action: shipping lawyer James M Turner said foreign-flagged ships generally cannot be seized unless falsely flagged or stateless.
Some routes appear to be shifting under pressure — tanker Yi Tong avoided the Channel last month by sailing around Ireland and northern Scotland, a longer and costlier path.
With Russian warships escorting tankers, is the UK's interception threat an empty promise risking a catastrophic oil spill?
As Russia builds a crypto payment system, is the West losing the economic war against the Kremlin's war machine?