The Russian Black Sea Fleet frigate Admiral Grigorovich escorted two “shadow fleet” tankers through the English Channel, according to a report byThe Telegraph. The transit came two weeks after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that sanctioned vessels would be detained in British territorial waters.
The Telegraph’s journalists tracked the Russian flotilla from aboard the British vessel Royal Charlotte, which was positioned about 15 kilometers (9 miles) off the port of Dover. According to a diagram published by the newspaper, the Admiral Grigorovich accompanied the tankers Universal (IMO 9384306) and Enigma (IMO 9333412). A British Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel — the tanker RFA Tideforce — also followed the Russian frigate.
Starmer said in late March that he had granted British military personnel and law enforcement officials the authority to detain ships listed under UK sanctions while they are located in the country’s territorial waters. He said the move was necessary to “starve Putin’s war machine of dirty profits.”
So far, however, British forces have not detained any vessels from the “shadow fleet.”
Both Universal and Enigma were added to UK sanctions lists in 2025. In January, the Universal departed from the oil port of Vysotsk in Russia’s Leningrad Region, while the Enigma sailed from the Russian port of Primorsk.
According to analysts cited by The Telegraph, more than 300 vessels linked to Russia’s “shadow fleet” have passed through UK territorial waters since the start of 2026. Experts note that seizing such a large number of tankers would require significant resources, and that British ports have a limited number of berths capable of accommodating vessels of that size.
The Irish Times recently reported that, following Starmer’s announcement, ships from Russia’s “shadow fleet” began avoiding the English Channel, instead taking a longer route into the Atlantic by sailing around Ireland. According to the Irish newspaper’s sources, a significant number of these tankers have been observed off Ireland’s western coast since late March.
