From Fox News: A 1,000-strong “dark fleet” of rogue oil tankers skirting sanctions has emerged as a new target for the U.S. and Ukraine, a senior maritime intelligence analyst claims.
Michelle Wiese Bockmann warned the aging fleet poses geopolitical risks and threats of $1 billion oil spills, with the recent U.S. seizures in Venezuela and Ukrainian drone strikes in the Black Sea marking a turning point for both nations in their efforts.
Recent Ukrainian naval drone strikes have disabled several tankers in the Black Sea, including the Dashan, part of Russia’s so-called shadow fleet that Ukraine says helps Moscow export oil in defiance of sanctions, according to Reuters.
“There are about 1,000 vessels worldwide that are trading sanctioned crude tankers containing sanctioned Iranian, Venezuelan and Russian oil,” Bockmann told Fox News Digital. “These vessels are a lifeline for these regimes, because they’re used for shipping oil to fund the war in Ukraine, and also give money to the illicit Maduro regime.”
“This is a brand-new problem for the U.S., and now Ukraine has signaled they are going to target these vessels the same way,” she said. “There is a new strategy to deal with this dark fleet, which is the lifeline of sanctioned oil revenues, and now under attack by the U.S. and Ukraine. The strategy is all to counter what we call gray-zone aggression.”
“It is dangerous and could be interpreted as a form of gray-zone aggression in order to continue to keep oil revenue flowing,” Bockmann continued. “This is all a billion-dollar oil spill catastrophe waiting to happen.”
Bockman said 350-400 vessels are flying false flags, making them stateless and uninsured, posing risks to maritime safety, the environment, and crew welfare. These vessels are often elderly and used solely for sanctioned oil trades.
She explained how the vessels are operating.
“They use false flagging, but also spoofing and manipulating its AIS to show it’s in one place when it’s not. These vessels have also gone to fraudulent registries that don’t exist, which means they have no insurance,” Bockman said. “Their certificates of seaworthiness are invalid, and they have relied on international maritime conventions to have what’s called the ‘right of innocent passage’ so they can’t get intercepted.”
Bockmann said U.S. forces are using legal tools to stop the activity, including Article 110 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which allows boarding of stateless vessels.
The Dark Fleet, Lifeline of Sanctioned Oil Revenues, is Under Attack.
Free to read @WindwardAI blog that outlines this new and rapidly evolving strategy that’s emerged to counter the dark fleet in Venezuela and the Black Sea
click on link:https://t.co/zLNx4xeg7G pic.twitter.com/QaFH4jYHYp— Michelle Wiese Bockmann (@Michellewb_) December 11, 2025
Ukraine reportedly targets Russia’s shadow fleet in foreign waters as sanctions fail to sink Putin’s oil sales https://t.co/BGB4HmVxxr
— CBS Miami (@CBSMiami) December 10, 2025
Read more at Fox News
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