"Shadow fleet" and stolen grain: DIU releases list of 26 ships financing Russia’s war

"Shadow fleet" and stolen grain: DIU releases list of 26 ships financing Russia’s war

The export of energy resources remains one of the main sources of funding for Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence in the “Maritime vessels” section of the War&Sanctions portal publishes data on 26 vessels that Russia uses to transport grain from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, Russian oil and petroleum products, as well as liquefied natural gas from the sanctioned “Arctic LNG-2” project.

The export of energy resources remains one of the main sources of funding for Russia’s war against Ukraine. Russia also uses the theft of Ukrainian agricultural products and their export as a tool of influence on other states — in particular, to obtain political and economic preferences.

Among the published vessels:

• oil tankers transporting Russian oil and petroleum products from the ports of the Black Sea and Baltic regions in the interests of “Lukoil”, “Rosneft”, “Surgutneftegaz”, “Novatek”, “Tatneft” and “Gazprom”;
• dry cargo vessels exporting agricultural products from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine through the ports of Berdiansk, Sevastopol, Kerch and Feodosia;
• LNG tankers transporting liquefied gas from the sanctioned floating storage unit SAAM FSU (IMO 9915090), where LNG from the sanctioned “Arctic LNG-2” project is accumulated.

18 of the 26 published vessels are not under sanctions of any of Ukraine’s partner countries. In particular:

• bulk carrier LAMAR S (IMO 9154505), which in 2026 repeatedly loaded wheat at the “Avlita” terminal (LLC “Aval”) in temporarily occupied Sevastopol for further delivery, including to Syria.
• general cargo vessel NAYA FALCON (IMO 8033120), which in 2026 exported food soda and granulated wheat bran from Sevastopol to Egypt and Cyprus.
• tanker GREGAL (IMO 9378876), which is part of the fleet of Cymare Navigation FZC (UAE), affiliated with the Russian “Sovcomflot”.

Synchronization of sanctions efforts and detention of violating vessels are necessary to limit the aggressor’s maritime logistics and deprive Russia of resources to continue the war.