EU defence ministers are meeting in Brussels today (Foreign Affairs Council (Defence), 28 September 2026) under High Representative Kaja Kallas, with Russia’s shadow fleet on the agenda. Officials have said operations against the fleet “need to be developed systematically”. IISS analysis found that the UK’s boarding of the tanker Smyrtos back in June simply displaced Russian tankers onto other routes, without reducing the number sailing past Britain.
This reduced their presence in the English channel by 50% in just 2 months, moving them away from French, German and Belgian waters closer to Scotland, which still poses significant risks at high seas, but limits European coastal states from exposure to oil spillages from the aging ships and potential espionage. Russia continues to threatend and carry out hybrid warfare across Europe, and their shadow fleet operations must be seen as a national security issue.
To stop the shadow fleet, one boarding, however well publicised, is not a systematic campaign, and it is not the first time ministers have promised to act on the shadow fleet without following through: Germany pledged over a year ago to “put pressure” on the same fleet in its own waters but has yet to take consistent action, and Greenpeace has documented dozens of shadow tankers passing through with zero concrete inspections.
Ukraine-based international organisation Razom We Stand, with expertise related to Russian energy exports, says the test of today’s meeting is not the statement ministers issue, but whether it is followed by inspections, sanctions and public transparency about its actions, not another round of promises with no serious enforcement.
Dr Svitlana Romanko, Founder and Executive Director of Razom We Stand, stated:
“We’ve heard ‘systematic’ before. Germany promised to put pressure on the shadow fleet over a year ago, and tankers are still sailing through its waters uninspected. One boarding makes a good headline; it does not touch the hundreds of ships still moving Russian oil.”
“If EU defence ministers are serious today, it has to mean named vessels, named insurers, named flag states, and inspections that actually happen, not another statement that costs the Kremlin nothing. It’s time that Europe finally decides to stop buying the Russian fossil fuels that fund it’s brutal war upon us in Ukraine, and it’s time for Europe to finally stop Russia’s shadow fleet with real measures that can finally push them towards a just peace.”
Razom We Stand is calling on the EU and its member states to:
- Approach the Russian shadow fleet sailing through European waters as a security issue, rather than only ecological or bureaucratic policy cases.
- Move from occasional interceptions to systematic, coordinated inspection of shadow-fleet tankers in European waters engaging with UK maritime services
- Extend sanctions liability to the insurers and flag registries enabling the fleet, coordinated with UK and US measures
- Encourage EU member-states to enact the national legislation needed to board and inspect shadow-fleet tankers directly in their own territorial waters, rather than waiting on the next EU sanctions package or a Commission-led process, paired with close coordination on designations and monitoring at EU level so enforcement doesn’t fragment into isolated national actions
These are the types of measures that Razom We Stand believes will create the real economic pressure to dry up the Kremlin’s war funds, and push them to negotiate for a just peace. The Russian shadow fleet poses a national security risk to whatever nation’s waters it enters. A harsher line must be taken in reprimanding the shadow fleet for entering sovereign waters.
