Overview

• Greenpeace has highlighted significant environmental risks posed by Russia's 'shadow fleet,' which operates in the Mediterranean and other regions to evade international sanctions.
• The fleet consists of aging, underinsured tankers with poor safety standards, which conduct risky ship-to-ship oil transfers to obscure the origin of Russian oil.
• These operations, particularly near Sicily, threaten marine protected areas, coastal ecosystems, and seabird breeding grounds, with a high risk of oil spills.
• The fleet has also been implicated in espionage and sabotage activities, including damage to undersea cables and suspected involvement in smuggling Libyan oil to Europe.
• Greenpeace criticized Italian authorities for insufficient enforcement of EU sanctions, allowing sanctioned ships to dock and operate near Italian ports with minimal oversight.