(KYIV, UKRAINE) – Around 700 vessels that carry Russian oil are currently under sanctions globally. About half of those ships have stopped such activity, according to Vladyslav Vlasiuk, the Ukrainian President’s Commissioner for Sanctions Policy.
Mr Vlasiuk spoke on television about Russia’s shadow fleet and the results of sanctions imposed by other countries.
“Globally, approximately 700 Russian vessels, vessels that transport Russian oil, are under sanctions. Of these, approximately half have stopped such activity,” he said.
Mr Vlasiuk explained that for many other ships, being on sanctions lists creates problems working anywhere except Russia, China and India. On the other hand, it sometimes creates high chances for them to end up in the zone of another type of sanctions, which the Ukrainian Defence Forces successfully impose.
“Therefore, I would not advise anyone to continue transporting sanctioned Russian oil and liquefied gas, by the way,” the commissioner said.
He said Ukrainian authorities track all further attempts to scale up or increase this shadow fleet.
“Every day we see some new information about a change of flag of a vessel or about another new voyage of a new vessel. This is all recorded very quickly, it all immediately becomes clear and relevant proposals to expand the sanctions lists are immediately offered to partners. And, by the way, I think that we will soon have a small sanctions package specifically on the shadow fleet,” Mr Vlasiuk said.
On what politicians or senior officials lose when sanctions are imposed against them, the commissioner said the main loss is to their business interests.
“If you are a serious Russian oligarch and you have global business interests, then your own sanctions poison all your assets and all your business. This is not a working situation. It drives you into conditions of existing only in the dimension of Russia, partially and limitedly India, China, Iran, North Korea. In these countries you are offered to work and do business. And Africa, possibly globally. But without using the usual global instruments and services,” he said.
Mr Vlasiuk said that for a number of oligarchs the issue is also about reputation and certain everyday inconveniences. That includes, for example, the inability to visit a favourite berth in Cap Ferrat or a similar place.
The United States government has sold two sanctioned oil tankers flying the Russian flag for scrap. The vessels, Era and Lileo, were detained a few days after a raid by Washington in Venezuela.