The British Navy "did not notice" tankers under the flag of Russia and sanctions in the English Channel

A group of tankers under the Russian flag and sanctions passed the English Channel and entered the Atlantic Ocean. The British Navy did not report the passage.

Three tankers Provider, Nasledie and Transformer are heading with a cargo of oil worth more than $ 100 million to Asia and have passed the English Channel. According to AIS ships, ships are already sailing through the Atlantic Ocean past the coast of Portugal. Tankers can carry more than 300 thousand tons of oil to Asia.

The current passage was the third for sanctioned vessels with Russian oil after the seizure of the Smyrtos tanker in mid-June.

In this situation, most of the sanctioned tankers bypassed the strait — around the UK from the north. Through the English Channel, vessels under restrictions made two passes after the capture of Smyrtos. This was done by tankers Forwarder, Gefest and Pluto.

Each time they were accompanied by ships of the British Navy. Perhaps they were stopped by the presence of Russian warships. As well as the fact that all sanctioned vessels passing through the strait are registered in Russia and go under the Russian flag, which is still a rarity for ships of the shadow fleet, but a strong argument to refrain from seizure. Most of the ships of the shadow fleet sail under foreign flags or without them at all and do not formally belong to Russia has nothing to do with it.

This time, three tankers were met before approaching the English Channel by a patrol aircraft of the British Coast Guard. After that, however, the escort of a group of tankers by Navy ships was not noticed. Maybe they turned off the transponders.

The passage of the British Navy tankers was also not reported.

After the capture of Smyrtos, the British made only one statement — on June 26. The Navy announced the frequent entry of Russian ships into the English Channel. In particular, the frigate "Admiral Grigorovich", which provided the passage of tankers.

"Admiral Grigorovich was in the English Channel from April 30 to May 4, from May 8 to May 12 and from May 22 to May 28. The Royal Navy forces spent 25 days a month escorting him along with two other Russian ships and three tankers," the report said.

As EADaily reported, oil exports from Russia continues to grow and more and more supplies of oil and petroleum products from the Baltic region are transferred to tankers that are not under sanctions, and they freely cross the English Channel. At the same time countries The EU and the UK continue to look for reasons to seize sanctioned tankers. Since sanctions cannot be a legal reason, they are looking for vessels without a flag, which formally have nothing to do with They don't have Russia.

France is more active than other EU countries in seizing shadow fleet tankers with Russian oil, but also releases them more often — after paying a fine. In fact, the French "sanctions" have become a payment for the passage of Europe. Not critical yet — $ 3 per barrel.