Between January 2025 and June 2026, the Russian ship register grew by 36 per cent as a result of diplomatic pressure on vessels in the ‘shadow fleet’. This is the conclusion reached by an analysis carried out by CREA.
As the countries imposing sanctions step up the pressure on open ship registers, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) reports that the Russian ‘shadow fleet’ is increasingly faced with the choice of either sailing under a false flag – and thereby risking detention – or registering with the Russian ship register. As a result, the number of ships flying the Russian flag has risen significantly.
According to the analysis, a total of 107 ships were newly registered in the Russian ship register between January 2025 and June 2026. This represents an increase of 36 per cent. This trend peaked in December 2025, when 25 ships were added in a single month, CREA reports.
Sanctioned ships are being removed from other registers
According to the CREA analysis, the figures reflect a trend whereby open ship registers are increasingly moving away from allowing sanctioned vessels from the ‘shadow fleet’ to sail under their flags.
Barbados and Palau, in particular, have removed all sanctioned vessels from their registers. Panama has reduced the number of such vessels by almost two-thirds compared with the peak in May 2025. In addition, the world’s largest ship registers have established a joint database through the Registry Information Sharing Compact (RISC) to combat frequent changes of flag and other forms of sanctions evasion.
However, many vessels from the ‘shadow fleet’ have switched to less strictly regulated or non-transparent registers. By June 2026, 46 vessels that had previously flown the flags of the Comoros or The Gambia had been added to the Russian register. Others have moved to Sierra Leone or Equatorial Guinea, or continue to sail without a recognised flag.
“Russia’s shadow fleet moves in waves from one open ship register to the next. It is a veritable game of cat and mouse. Whilst ship registers come under pressure to exclude sanctioned Russian vessels, these ships repeatedly change their flag. Sometimes they sail under false flags, thereby exposing themselves to the risk of being detained, before finally finding a last safe haven in the Russian register. The Russian ship register has become a one-way street for sanctioned vessels: for every ship that leaves the register, around nine new ones join. In doing so, it helps to secure the oil revenues with which Russia is financing its bloodshed in Ukraine,” explained Luke Wickenden, lead author of the report and energy analyst in CREA’s Europe-Russia Policy & Energy Analysis Team.
China is one of the main buyers of crude oil
According to the report, 93 of the 107 vessels added to the Russian register had previously been subject to sanctions. Around 90 of these were subject to sanctions from more than one jurisdiction.
Ships that had already been transporting Russian crude oil prior to their first sanction changed their flag three times as often after being sanctioned as they had before, before eventually registering under the Russian flag. Sixteen of these vessels had also carried Iranian or Venezuelan oil. This illustrates that the various shadow fleets draw on the same pool of ageing, sanctioned vessels.
After changing to the Russian flag, these vessels continued to transport Russian fossil fuels around the world. In doing so, they carried crude oil worth €5.2 billion, mainly to China, and operated in areas used for ship-to-ship transhipments off the coast of Egypt and in the Red Sea.
Ships flying the Russian flag that are subject to sanctions pose significant risks to coastal states . According to CREA, this became apparent in March 2026, when the ‘Arctic Metagaz’, carrying 60,000 tonnes of Russian LNG, exploded and subsequently drifted at sea, unable to manoeuvre, for more than a month. Russia did not initiate any salvage operations and left it to Libya, Malta and Italy to manage the crisis.
“Ukraine’s allies must impose sanctions on companies that support Russia’s shadow fleet and operate fake flag registers or flags of convenience. At the same time, ships that breach international maritime standards must be intercepted and subjected to heavy fines. The incident involving the ‘Arctic Metagaz’ has shown what the Russian flag really is: a shield for dangerous ships, without any support being provided in the event of a disaster. The coastal states are left to bear the risks and deal with the consequences,” explained Luke Wickenden.
