The frigate Admiral Grigorovich in St. Petersburg, Russia, 27 July 2025. Photo: EPA/ALEXANDER KAZAKOV / SPUTNIK / KREMLIN POOL KREMLIN POOL / MANDATORY CREDIT
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Russia had “the right … to defend its interests” against what he termed “piracy”, in response to British reports that a Russian warship had escorted sanctioned tankers through the English Channel.
“We have witnessed multiple instances of piracy in international waters in recent months,” Peskov continued. “These instances of piracy have also damaged the economic interests of the Russian Federation.”
According to The Telegraph, the Russian Black Sea frigate Admiral Grigorovich was seen escorting two sanctioned “shadow fleet” oil tankers past the UK’s southern coast on Wednesday, in defiance of British threats to seize Russian-linked ships transiting its waters.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer authorised the British military to board and seize sanctioned Russian ships two weeks ago, claiming the move would force Russian vessels “to either divert to longer, financially painful routes, or risk being detained by British forces”.
The move aims to emulate similar seizures of Russian “shadow fleet” tankers by the Belgian, Swedish and Finnish navies in recent months. However, the Telegraph noted that the Royal Navy is yet to intercept a single Russian-linked ship.
The two ships escorted through the Channel were identified as the oil tankers Enigma and Universal, which were sailing from the North Sea towards the Atlantic. Publicly available tracking data shows that Enigma is travelling under the flag of Cameroon, and is heading from Russia’s Baltic port of Primorsk towards Mersin in Turkey. The final destination of the Russian-flagged Universal is unknown.
Since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022, Russia has been relying on a clandestine network of so-called “shadow fleet” tankers, with murky documents tracing ownership, registration and insurance, to keep shipping costs down and evade international sanctions on Russian exports and imports.
