By AFP and Kontur | 2025-10-08

French authorities have moved against a Russian "shadow fleet" oil tanker suspected of carrying sanctioned crude, underscoring European Union's (EU) efforts to disrupt Moscow's use of aging vessels to skirt Western restrictions.

Last week, the tanker Boracay, also known as the Pushpa and Kiwala, was boarded by French forces after entering national waters, and its captain and first mate were taken into custody.

Prosecutors said the 244-meter-long vessel, which claimed Benin registration, failed to provide proper documentation while carrying a "large cargo of oil" from Russia to India.

The ship has been blacklisted by the EU and linked to mysterious drone flights over Denmark, part of a spate of unexplained airspace incidents in Europe blamed on Moscow. Russia has denied involvement.

Shadow fleet under scrutiny

France's action comes amid growing pressure within the EU to crack down on aging and opaque tankers that allow Russia to continue profiting from oil exports in defiance of sanctions.

The EU has blacklisted 444 vessels tied to this shadow fleet, with the United Kingdom sanctioning around 500 since February 2022.

These ships, often flagged under countries with loose regulatory regimes and hidden ownership structures, operate outside the norms of global shipping insurance and environmental oversight.

French President Emmanuel Macron on October 3 called for a coordinated European response, suggesting joint efforts with NATO to disrupt the fleet's operations.

"It is extremely important to increase the pressure on this shadow fleet, because it will clearly reduce the capacity to finance this war effort," Macron said. "You kill the business model by detaining, even for days or weeks, these vessels and forcing them to organize themselves differently."

According to Macron, the shadow fleet may comprise up to 1,000 ships and represent "tens of billions of euros of Russia's budget," accounting for as much as 40% of the Kremlin's war financing.

Timeline of the tanker's movements

According to data from maritime tracking services such as VesselFinder and MarineTraffic, Boracay departed India in early August and remained moored off the Russian village of Ust-Luga until September 18. It then made a short stop at the oil terminal in Primorsk, near Saint Petersburg, before heading west across the Baltic Sea.

From September 20, the ship entered international waters off the coasts of Poland, Sweden and Denmark.

On September 22, the same day mysterious drone flights disrupted Danish air traffic, it was located near Denmark's Lolland island. It then passed through the Great Belt Strait and moved westward toward the English Channel.

On September 25, the tanker was spotted about 160 kilometers (some 99 miles) west of Denmark and appeared to be continuing south toward the Atlantic. But by midnight GMT on September 28, it abruptly changed course and headed toward the French coast.

Once in French waters, authorities reported the crew had failed to provide proof of the vessel's nationality and refused to cooperate, prompting French military forces to board the ship later that day.

While Paris has not confirmed any link between the tanker and the unexplained drone activity over Denmark, French media reports have suggested the possibility. Specialist maritime outlet The Maritime Executive has speculated that vessels like this one could serve as launch platforms or decoys in drone incursions.

Rise of the ghost fleet

The use of ghost or shadow fleets is not new. Countries such as Iran, Venezuela and North Korea have long employed such tactics to bypass US sanctions. But the size and activity of the fleet has ballooned since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to the Atlantic Council, around 17% of the world's oil tankers now belong to this fleet.

In August 2025, the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a Helsinki-based think tank, estimated that 125 of the 400 vessels transporting Russian oil and oil products were shadow tankers. Of those, 38 were over 20 years old.

The Kyiv School of Economics has warned of serious environmental risks posed by the aging fleet, particularly to the European Union. Older vessels often lack modern safety systems and carry no protection and indemnity insurance, a requirement for managing risks such as collisions or oil spills.

This insurance sector is dominated by the EU and UK, both of which have banned coverage of Russian oil shipments as part of broader sanctions, forcing Moscow to offer its own insurance mechanisms.

In early 2024, the Atlantic Council projected that by 2025, tankers older than 20 years would represent 11% of the global fleet, up from 3% prior to the Ukraine war.