The Russian Shadow Fleet has become a tool for intelligence and sabotage

Russia is using a so-called shadow fleet to spy on European countries. The Kremlin places people with military and intelligence connections on tankers that transport Russian oil to circumvent sanctions.

This was reported by CNN, citing Ukrainian and Western intelligence.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Moscow has built a shadow fleet of hundreds of tankers that transport oil from ports in the Baltic and Black Seas. Despite sanctions, these vessels bring the Kremlin hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

According to Ukrainian intelligence, in the last months before the voyage, some tankers were adding additional crew members. Formally, the lists were dominated by foreigners, but at the end of the documents, Russian citizens with Russian passport data also appeared.

European countries are concerned that Russia is recruiting people with security service experience to join its crews, a sign of the Kremlin’s increasingly brazen methods.

According to intelligence, some of these individuals work for the Russian company Moran Security. It is closely connected to the Russian military and intelligence services and is engaged in recruiting former military personnel, including officers of special forces and the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

Moran Security is headed by a lieutenant colonel in the Russian FSB, and its management team includes former nuclear submarine commanders. The company gives preference to candidates with combat experience, including those who previously worked for the Wagner PMC.

The US imposed sanctions on Moran Security in 2024. According to Ukrainian intelligence, about six months ago the company began placing its people on tankers of the shadow fleet under the guise of “guards.”

One example is the sanctioned tanker Boracay. In September 2025, the ship took on board two representatives of Moran Security at the port of Primorsk in the Baltic Sea. They were listed in the documents as “technicians.”

Ukrainian and Western intelligence have established that one of them is a former police officer and a member of the Wagner PMC. During the next voyage, two more Russians were on board the tanker – a former special forces officer of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs and a person with a registration address at the Russian Ministry of Defense.

It was previously reported that on the night of December 18, drones attacked the oil tanker Valery Horachkov in the Russian port of Rostov-on-Don.

As a reminder, on December 18, the European Union decided to introduce new restrictive measures against the Russian “shadow fleet”, adding 41 more oil tankers to the sanctions list.

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