Ukraine has imposed sanctions on more than 50 Russian captains and one Iranian captain said to be involved in Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” used to circumvent Western sanctions, as per a decree signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday.
The tankers they command are considered part of the shadow fleet that Russia uses to evade sanctions imposed over its war on Ukraine, for example in the transport of oil.
The European Union has imposed sanctions on dozens of these vessels, but there are believed to be many others.
Most of the ships named in the Ukrainian decree are already on sanctions lists, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reported.
The sanctioned captains will have any assets in Ukraine frozen and be banned from entering the country or docking with their ships in Ukraine.
“It is vital that we keep pressuring Putin’s shadow tanker fleet, which transports oil around the world and earns money for Russia’s terror and war,” Zelensky said in his daily evening address.
