Increase in appearance of Russian ‘Shadow Fleet’ in Irish waters… Use of bypass routes to avoid sanctions

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Shin-young = The British daily The Times reported on the 29th (local time) that a Russian 'shadow fleet' is appearing on the west coast of Ireland to avoid Western sanctions.

The Irish Navy announced that the number of shadow fleets passing its coast this year was 382, ​​far exceeding the number of 132 ships counted from January to September last year.

In particular, there have been 303 confirmed cases since March.

The Times pointed out that the reason why the number of shadow fleet appearances in Irish waters has increased so much is because they are taking a detour to avoid the seizure of crude oil that has been caught by the UK and France and is subject to sanctions.

In fact, last June, the Shadow Fleet tanker 'Smyrtos', carrying 700,000 barrels of crude oil, was detected and captured by the Royal Marines while passing through the English Channel.

The British Navy is also increasing the number of operations to track sanctioned ships in its waters following the detection of the Smyrtos.

The English Channel is the fastest route for transporting Russian crude oil, so if you take a detour to Ireland to avoid sanctions, the cost burden will inevitably increase.

After the successful capture operation of the Smyrtos, British Naval Commander Gwynn Jenkins said, "Russian Shadow Fleet ships are having no choice but to change their routes, increasing the cost and time burden."

Some say that if this happens, Russia's funding stream for the war in Ukraine will inevitably take a hit.

Mark Mellett, former chief of staff of the Irish Defense Forces, said: “We cannot change the transport route because we cannot afford the financial loss that would occur if the oil was captured by British or French authorities and taken away. This would affect funding for the war in Ukraine.”

The Times pointed out that concerns about damage to submarine cables are growing as the Shadow Fleet passes through relatively shallow Irish waters.

Ships belonging to the Shadow Fleet have already been involved in submarine cable cutting incidents in the Baltic Sea and elsewhere.

According to intelligence sources, Russia is said to have established a plan to locate and destroy the undersea cables, but so far no undersea cables in Irish waters have been damaged.