Tanya Kozyreva

A Ukrainian delegation asked U.S. State Department officials to verify whether sanctioned vessels in Russia's shadow fleet are using Starlink technology, which could violate U.S. sanctions policy.

Vessels of Russia's shadow fleet are using Starlink to communicate and coordinate, a Kyiv Independent investigation has revealed.

The vessels are old, their hulls streaked with rust, and their ownership obscured behind layers of shell companies. Yet the tankers that make up Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, the armada used to move sanctioned oil across the globe, are kept running with modern Western technology including Starlink, an investigation by the Kyiv Independent can reveal. To gain an insight into how the shadow fleet operates, the Kyiv Independent spoke to two Ukrainian sailors who claim they unwittingly became p