Russia's hybrid war at sea spurs NATO-backed crackdown on shadow fleet

By AFP and Global Watch | 2025-07-11

Fourteen countries from Northern Europe have agreed to strengthen collaboration to combat Russia's "shadow fleet," which Moscow is accused of using to circumvent sanctions and sell its oil, the Danish Foreign Ministry said.

Representatives of Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom had met to discuss the issue on June 19, the Danish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"We have agreed to further strengthen our cooperation and ensure a joint and coordinated approach by our national authorities to address Russia's shadow fleet," the statement said.

The countries committed to "compile a common set of guidelines in line with international law to promote responsible behavior at sea, strengthen compliance with international law and ensure transparency across maritime operations."

Russia is operating a large fleet of hundreds of vessels, seeking to dodge the sanctions Western nations imposed on its oil exports over the war in Ukraine, say security analysts.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.

Suspicious damage occurred to several undersea Baltic cables last year, with many analysts calling it part of a Russian "hybrid war" against Western countries.

Operation 'Task Force X'

"If vessels fail to fly a valid flag in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, we will take appropriate action within international law," the statement said.

"Stateless vessels, including those falsely claiming to fly a flag," lack a responsible flag state and do not have the same rights entitled to them under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, it added.

In January, NATO announced the deployment of ships, aircraft and drones in a Baltic Sea operation in response to damage to several undersea cables, but the operation requires considerable human and material resources.

In the face of these threats, the transatlantic organization wants to strengthen its fleet of unmanned surveillance ships in the Baltic Sea as part of its operation "Task Force X."

Russia's maritime threat is not confined to the Baltic Sea. Western officials have grown increasingly alarmed by Moscow's expanding undersea operations across broader European waters.

In April, the British newspaper The Times reported that Russia had stepped up covert activity in the Atlantic Ocean, deploying spy submarines and specialized research vessels to install underwater sensors -- likely aimed at tracking the United Kingdom's nuclear submarine fleet.

But concerns about hostile underwater activity in the region are not limited to Moscow. In November, observers blamed a Chinese vessel for severing vital data cables linking Germany to Finland and Lithuania to Sweden -- an incident that raised new alarms about infrastructure vulnerability in Northern Europe.

Deliberately obscuring activities

In October 2023, a Hong Kong-owned container ship, the Newnew Polar Bear, en route from Russia, damaged a major Baltic Sea gas pipeline and two telecom cables between Estonia and Finland after dragging its anchor -- fueling suspicions of deliberate sabotage disguised as maritime accidents.

NATO and the European Union's pressure on the shadow fleet -- which relies on murky ownership and flags of convenience and often operates with tracking systems turned off -- has forced a 76% drop in Russian crude oil exports since Russia launched its full-scale invasion three years ago.

The pressure has much reduced Russia's ability to pay for its three-year-old war in Ukraine.

The fleet primarily consists of older tankers, often purchased secondhand and registered under flags of convenience such as those of Gabon, the Cook Islands, or other jurisdictions that do not enforce sanctions or standard safety regulations. Many are owned by companies based in the United Arab Emirates or Seychelles, and some by Russia's state-run Sovcomflot shipping company.

To evade detection, many of these ships deactivate their Automatic Identification Systems, which are beacons required to prevent collisions and track vessel movements. Doing so further obscures their activities.