A sanctioned tanker under a false flag freely entered the territorial waters of the Russian Federation — Klymenko

The sanctioned vessel has changed its name, flag and owner — and continues to operate, despite promises to strengthen monitoring of the shadow fleet.

The tanker Suvorovsky Prospect, previously owned by the sanctioned Russian Sovcomflot, has entered Russian territorial waters without hindrance, despite the change of name, jurisdiction and officially banned flag. This was reported by Andriy Klymenko, project manager at the Institute for Black Sea Strategic Studies.

According to monitoring data, the vessel, which can transport about 100 thousand tons of crude oil, changed its name to Sierra on October 1, 2024. The vessel is currently owned by an offshore structure registered in Dubai, UAE.

The tanker is under sanctions by the United States (since October 17, 2024), the European Union (since December 17, 2024) and Canada (since February 21, 2025). In addition, since May 1, 2025, the ship has been sailing under the false flag of Malawi.

“None of the Baltic countries has detained this ship, although it could have done so — not only because of the sanctions that prohibit entry into ports, but also because of the fact that it was using a false flag,” Klymenko emphasizes.

According to the expert, this is another example of the imperfection of the system for monitoring compliance with sanctions and monitoring of shadow fleet vessels. Although a number of decisions have been made at the EU level to strengthen joint monitoring, their practical implementation is still lagging — in particular, due to a lack of resources and inconsistency between services.

The day before, USM wrote that the new EU sanctions package will include specific captains of Russia’s “shadow fleet” for the first time.