How Russia’s shadow fleet keeps slipping through Europe’s net
ACLED says 4 undersea cables have been damaged since 2025 as Russia’s shadow fleet expands into sanctions evasion and hybrid warfare.
7 Articles
7 Articles
Russia’s 1,392-vessel shadow fleet is now hybrid-warfare tool. It will continue as long as its export capacity remains unharmed
Russia is using its sanctions-busting "shadow fleet" to circumvent oil-export restrictions and as infrastructure for hybrid warfare against NATO members. It includes documented links to cable cuts and drone launches over critical European installations, and Russian state-military escorts protecting the vessels, conflict-monitoring nonprofit ACLED says, according to Newsweek. The shadow fleet's actions "are likely to continue as long as Russia's…
How Russia’s shadow fleet keeps slipping through Europe’s net
Russia’s vast “shadow fleet” of vessels has been seen primarily as a means of keeping the Kremlin’s oil revenues flowing despite Western sanctions. But a new report from the monitoring group ACLED argues the fleet has evolved into something bigger – a flexible platform for hybrid warfare across northern Europe.
Russia's massive shadow fleet, consisting of thousands of ships, has until now been viewed primarily as a tool for the Kremlin to circumvent Western sanctions and maintain oil revenues. However, a new report published Friday by the conflict monitoring organization ACLED sheds a completely new and disturbing light on this practice.
While NATO foreign ministers are meeting in Helsingborg, Sweden, Russian shadow fleet ships are sailing through the Øresund Strait, with complete freedom of movement.
Since the beginning of 2025, four submarine cables have been damaged in the Baltic Sea, and dozens of suspicious drone flights have been recorded over European coastal infrastructure. Analysts of the Armed Conflict Data Project believe that Russia's “shadow fleet” of oil tankers is being used as a tool for a hybrid war against European powers. The study deals with possible sabotage of underwater infrastructure and surveillance of military and cr…
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