Dozens of tankers belonging to Russia’s “shadow fleet” were identified in the Gulf of Finland in the space of a week, Finnish broadcaster Yle reported Monday, as experts warned the ageing vessels increased the risk of an oil spill.<\/p>\n
Yle has identified 31 vessels found on the EU’s sanctions list of ships from Moscow’s “shadow fleet” — vessels, with dubious ownership used to skirt western sanctions on oil — trafficking the narrow Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea over the course of a week in October.<\/p>\n
Mikko Hirvi, Head of Maritime Safety at the Finnish Border Guard was not surprised by the numbers.<\/p>\n
“Russian shipments in the Gulf of Finland are at pre-war levels, which means that this traffic is largely carried out by the shadow fleet,” Hirvi told AFP.<\/p>\n
Last week, the European Union added over a 100 more tankers to its blacklist as part of a new sanctions package, with the vessels banned from port access and receiving services within the EU.<\/p>\n
The EU is also looking to increase the ability of its member states to carry out inspections on the ships.<\/p>\n
Mainly transporting crude oil, but also refined products such as gasoline and diesel, the vessels mostly serving the Russian Baltic seaports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk constitute a “ticking environmental time bomb,” according to experts interviewed by Yle.<\/p>\n
“The risk of environmental accidents, especially in the Baltic Sea and particularly in the Gulf of Finland, is clearly at an elevated level,” Hirvi said.<\/p>\n
“This is due to the poor condition of the shadow fleet’s old ships, combined with GNSS jamming,” he said, referring to disabling navigational tracking systems.<\/p>\n
Only six of the ships identified by Yle were less than 15 years old.<\/p>\n
Depending on the severity of a potential oil spill accident, it “could cause very significant costs,” for Finland, according to Hirvi.<\/p>\n
The semi-enclosed Baltic Sea is surrounded by industrial and agricultural nations Germany, Poland, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and the three Baltic states.<\/p>\n
Connected to the Atlantic only by the narrow Danish straits, the Baltic Sea is known for its shallow, low-salinity waters, which are highly sensitive to environmental changes.<\/p>\n
ank\/jll\/gv<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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