Denmark to beef up checks against Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’

TDT | Copenhagen

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Denmark will step up environmental checks on oil tankers in a key shipping lane linking the Baltic and North Seas to crack down on Russia’s “shadow fleet”, Copenhagen said on Monday.

More than 60,000 ships sail past Skagen in north Denmark each year, of which dozens are suspected to belong to a flotilla of rickety ships used by Moscow to circumvent Western sanctions on Russia’s fossil fuel exports.

The announcement comes after a vessel believed to belong to this “shadow fleet” was linked to mysterious drone sightings over Denmark last month, closing airports at a time of heightened EastWest tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“We’re now reinforcing the control of basic environmental rules, so we can act in a more coherent and effective manner against petrol tankers and Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’,” said Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke in a statement.