The risk of an oil spill in the Baltic Sea has increased since Russia began using a “ghost fleet” of tankers to circumvent Western sanctions, Finnish border guards warned this Thursday.
These used tankers, sometimes of dubious ownership or without insurance, allow Russia to continue exporting its oil en masse despite restrictions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, experts say.
According to the head of maritime security at the Finnish Border Guard, Mikko Simola, there is also an “increased risk of accidents with environmental consequences.”
About 70 of these ghost tankers, each capable of carrying more than 100,000 tons of crude oil, sail the Gulf of Finland every week after being loaded at various Russian ports, including St. Petersburg.
The number of oil tankers crossing the area is “about the same or even greater than before Russia’s attack on Ukraine,” a border guard quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
The use of old ships in poor condition increases the risk of technical failures that could threaten the fragile Baltic ecosystems.
“Another factor of concern is the uncertainty regarding the ownership and insurance guarantees of these vessels,” Simola added, noting that flags such as those of Cameroon, Gabon, Djibouti, Palau and Belize “have never been seen before in the northern Baltic “.
Finnish border guards have stepped up surveillance of the area and are ready to intervene with the support of other neighboring countries such as Estonia and Sweden, the head of the maritime security service of the Finnish Border Guard also assured.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, arguing it was protecting pro-Russian separatist minorities in the east and “denazifying” the neighboring country, independent since 1991 after the collapse of the former Soviet Union and breaking away from it. The space of Moscow’s influence and become closer to Europe and the West.
The war in Ukraine has already resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people on both sides, and the two warring sides remain adamant in their territorial positions and are not ready to negotiate concessions.
Recent months have been marked by large-scale Russian airstrikes on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, while Kyiv’s forces have struck targets in Russian territory near the border and on the Crimean peninsula, illegally annexed in 2014.
Already in the third year of the war, the Ukrainian Armed Forces faced a shortage of weapons and ammunition, despite repeated promises of help from the Western allies.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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