Greenpeace Documents Russian Shadow Fleet Tanker Escorted by Corvette Soobrazitelny

In the Baltic Sea, Greenpeace activists documented the tanker Kira K, which was transporting Russian oil, being escorted by the Russian Navy corvette Soobrazitelny.

Greenpeace reported the incident after a monitoring mission on June 30, performed by activists from Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Ukraine, alongside members of the German Bundestag, the European Parliament, and journalists.

The mission took place in Germany’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the Baltic Sea. While documenting the tanker’s passage with photos and video, the activists observed the Russian warship escorting Kira K.

According to Greenpeace, the tanker was carrying Russian crude oil loaded at the Port of Ust-Luga and was sailing through European waters under the Panamanian flag. Kira K has already been sanctioned by the European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Ukraine.

The organization also reported that maritime safety in the area of the operation was ensured by the German Coast Guard. Later, the Russian warship, through the Coast Guard, transmitted a demand for the activists to move away from the tanker. Despite this, the Greenpeace team completed the documentation of both the vessel and its escort.

“We witnessed that Russia is not only using a shadow fleet to bypass sanctions but is also ready to deploy naval vessels to escort it near the coast of the European Union,” Nataliia Gozak, Director of Greenpeace Ukraine, reported.

Greenpeace called on Baltic Sea countries to strengthen monitoring of so-called shadow fleet vessels and to more effectively enforce sanctions restrictions.

Militarnyi previously reported that Russia had installed heavy machine guns on the civilian gas tanker Marshal Vasilevskiy, which supplies natural gas to the Kaliningrad region.