Denmark’s maritime authority said Wednesday it will strengthen checks of oil tankers cruising its waters to target Russia’s sanctions-busting “shadow fleet” suspected of underwater sabotage.
Several undersea telecom and power cables have been severed in the Baltic Sea in recent months, with experts and politicians accusing Russia of orchestrating a hybrid war against Western countries supporting Ukraine.
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“The Danish maritime authority is stepping up its efforts to ensure that oil tankers... comply with security rules at sea, environmental protection and protection of sailors,” the Sofartsstyrelsen agency said in a statement.
The increased security checks were “in response to the activity of old oil tankers in the Danish straits, which increase risks and safety concerns for seafarers and the environment”, the statement read.
Several countries have blamed recent underwater sabotage acts on a “shadow fleet” of vessels -- often ageing, not properly insured and under opaque ownership -- carrying Russian crude oil and petroleum products, embargoed since the invasion of Ukraine.
That fleet has some 450 vessels, according to a report by the Kyiv School of Economics.
“Many of them pass through Danish straits, since Russia is heavily dependent on its Baltic ports for exports, particularly of crude oil,” political scientist Yevgeniy Golovchenko, a researcher at the University of Copenhagen, told AFP.
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In addition to direct action against Russia’s oil industry, Western countries have moved to sanction individual ships thought to be in the shadow fleet.
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