Data Set
22
Western Actions Against the Russian Shadow Fleet
List of interceptions, seizures, detentions and other measures by Western states against ships of the Russian Shadow Fleet
Version 1.0, published: June 30, 2026.
Description
This dataset includes a table listing all publicly known incidents in which official institutions of Western states such as coast guards, navy and police acted against ships which have been identified as belonging to the Russian shadow fleet. These actions mostly include boardings, detentions, seizures, arrests of captains and crew members, court trials, issuance of fines, ship inspections and deterring courses of those ships. Military actions, such as Ukrainian drone strikes against shadow fleet ships, are not included. The first listed incident took place on 26.12.2024, while the last identified action occured on 14.06.2026.
The columns of the table single out the date of the incident, the ship's name, its flag, its indicated start and destination, the carried goods and their amount (if known), the state who has acted, the location of the incident, the measures taken and the final outcome - whether the ship remains seized or was allowed to continue its journey. Also, the list indicates whether the ship is sanctioned by the EU under EU 883/2014 Art. 3s for being part of the shadow fleet.
Please note that in some cases not every fact can be determined clearly. While this list aims to compile all relevant incidents, no claim for comprehensiveness can be made.
The data was collected by reviewing existing lists of incidents and searching for news reports on the database "Factiva" covering seizures, detentions and boardings of shadow fleet tankers. It contains files in PDF and Excel format (both with the identical content, PDF file size: 150KB, Excel file size: 15 KB) as well as a documentation of data selection (57 KB) and a list of sources and links (214 KB).
Countries
Keywords
Russo-Ukrainian War Sanctions Shadow Fleet Oil Exports Maritime Security Sanctions Evasion Sanctions Circumvention
Language of data
Disciplines
International Relations Political Science Security Studies