Damaged Treasure Fleet
Russian senator wants to blow up tanker
Updated June 27, 2026Reading time: 2 min.
Oil tanker “Boracay”, which is attributed to the Russian shadow fleet: France captured the ship in the fall. (Source: Damien Meyer)
Read aloud
Current time:0:00Total duration:0:00
1x
New in t-online:
Adjust the font size!
There is a reaction from Russia after the British military seized the Smyrtos tanker. The US warns about the outdated technology of the shadow fleet.
Russian senator and former head of the Roscosmos space agency Dmitry Rogozin proposed equipping the “shadow fleet” tankers with explosives and, if necessary, sinking them. This was reported by the Ukrainian news agency UNN with reference to Russian media. The Moscow Times also quoted Rogozin.
“If this happens several times right before their eyes, with oil spills and corresponding consequences for the environment, they will immediately come to their senses,” Rogozin is quoted as saying. He commented on the decision Russia tanker “Smirtos” is assigned. United Kingdom.
Rogozin: Detonate explosives on command.
Rogozin advises detonating explosive devices “after receiving the appropriate order” – for example, in the event of a ship being forced to enter a foreign port or deviating from its route.
Dmitry Rogozin: The former head of Roscosmos wants to mine tankers. (Archive image) (Source: Sergey Savostyanov/imago-images-bilder)
The Rybar telegram channel, close to the Russian Ministry of Defense, called the arrest of Smirtos a “precedent” that “shows that conditions for the shadow fleet are becoming increasingly difficult.” The authors acknowledged that it would be impossible to provide all such ships with military escorts. They suggested using unmanned boats and private security to prevent ships from being grounded.
In mid-June, the British military stopped an oil tanker from the Russian shadow fleet that wanted to pass through the English Channel. According to the UK Ministry of Defence, the vessel is the almost 244 meter long oil tanker Smirtos, which, according to the Marine Traffic website, flies the Cameroon flag and came from a Russian port.
Tankers of the shadow fleet as a security threat
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the US Coast Guard has indications that ships from Russia’s shadow fleet could be used in oil spills, for example. The ships do not have sufficient safety measures and can, for example, be driven off course by remote control. According to the report, practices uncovered by U.S. Coast Guard cyber teams showed the vessels were vulnerable to “attackers” who could exploit these vulnerabilities to cause an explosion or oil spill.