How a shadow fleet of oil tankers aids Russia in the war with Ukraine : NPR
Ukraine says Russia uses oil tankers to launch drone attacks. NPR’s A Martinez speaks with Sergey Radchenko, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, about Russia’s “ghost fleet.”
TO MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The captain of an oil tanker arrested by French authorities off the Atlantic coast will face trial early next year. The captain is a Chinese citizen and was charged earlier this month with refusing to cooperate with French authorities. But it is its ship that is of most interest here, as French authorities say the tanker belongs to the so-called Russian Ghost Fleet and that Russian intelligence agents were found on board. Here, to further explain what it is, we called Sergey Radchenko. He is an expert on Russia and a professor at Johns Hopkins. So tell us briefly, what is this Russian ghost fleet? What is it mainly used for?
SERGEY RADCHENKO: Well, the ghost fleet appeared as a result of the oil price caps established by Western countries. The idea, implemented at the end of 2022, involved buying Russian oil at a given price and no more. So it was $60 at the time. And ships trading above the ceiling price would not be insured. And of course, insurance is mainly provided by Western companies. This therefore led Russia to ship its oil to customers in the South, in China, on board ghost tankers, which are mostly aging tankers. And that’s what they rely on to make their hard cash. But it also seems that the Russians use these tankers for sabotage operations or to launch drones.
MARTÍNEZ: Yes, that’s what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia was using this ghost fleet to launch drones to attack Ukraine and also to gather information. So is it true? Is this also what you collect?
RADCHENKO. — Well, maybe that’s the case. And of course, we’ve had several Russian drone incursions, not just from the ghost tanker fleet, if that’s what happened, but also directly across the border. What the Russians are trying to do here is create a sense of uncertainty and fear in Europe and divide public opinion, so that part of public opinion is basically demanding better relations with Russia. This, I think, is the aim of these operations.
MARTÍNEZ: Is using the ghost fleet in this way perhaps a change in Russian tactics in this war against Ukraine and the West?
RADCHENKO. “Well, it’s clear that they originally used the ghost fleet to make money. Putin needs cold hard cash to pay his soldiers to import important goods into Russia, including drones, et cetera. So yes, to some extent it represents a new beginning.
MARTÍNEZ: It’s been about two months since President Trump met with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Alaska, setting a deadline to end Russia’s war in Ukraine that has long passed. Sergei, what does it mean for the state of the conflict if the Russian Shadow Fleet continues to operate in this manner unabated?
RADCHENKO. — Well, it shows that the West has limited influence. Basically, we thought that capping oil prices could restrict Russia’s access to the market. And it worked to some extent. You know, Russia lost over $100 billion because of the oil price cap. But the reality is that Russia is a big country and it has trade relations with many other countries around the world, including China, India, and Turkey, et cetera. And it is very difficult, as President Trump has discovered, to use American and Western economic influence to get Russia to stop the war in Ukraine.
MARTÍNEZ: So in essence, Vladimir Putin really has no incentive at all to stop using this so-called ghost fleet?
RADCHENKO. — It’s very difficult. I think one possibility would be to act more forcefully to intercept these ships. But of course the Europeans cited the United Nations Convention, which would prevent this kind of action, because they say it would be piracy. We cannot stop these tankers. The reality is that little is being done about it.
MARTÍNEZ: Sergey Radchenko is a Russia expert and professor at Johns Hopkins. Sergey, thank you very much for the information.
RADCHENKO. Thank you for inviting me.
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