[Roosta]

Color me shocked

I'm sure he will have a plan but being Trump, he never does anything that he won't eventually benefit from.

[kellyhound]

russian war bloggers are concerned it seems.

[kellyhound]

The Kremlin is using old-age, poorly kept tankers to sell its crude oil above the price cap established by Western allies.

The European Union on Wednesday issued new sanctions against russia, targeting the "shadow fleet" of tankers that Moscow has deployed to circumvent Western restrictions on oil trade and maintain a source of revenue that is crucial to fund the war on Ukraine.

The fleet consists of old-age, uninsured ships whose poor condition has stoked fears of an impending environmental disaster near or inside European waters.

A handful of Chinese companies suspected of enabling russia's production of drones are also blacklisted as part of the agreement, a diplomat told.

The sanctions were sealed by ambassadors of the 27 member states during a meeting on Wednesday and represent the 15th package since the start of the russian invasion in February 2022.

Specific details of the restrictions were not immediately available but the package is believed to be modest compared to previous decisions. The discussions began last month and proceeded with little controversy among countries.

Lithuania, which raised complaints about a derogation that allows European companies to exit the russian market, was the last hold-out, two diplomats said.

==========================================

A russian oil tanker, Volgoneft-212, carrying 13 crew members and approximately 4,300 tons of fuel oil, broke apart near the Kerch Strait, russian media reported on December 15, 2024.

In addition, another tanker, Volgoneft-239, is sinking in the same area. The crews of both vessels have been stranded on their decks for approximately 4 hours, awaiting rescue operations.

Authorities reported that the vessel, registered in the port of St. Petersburg, began experiencing distress about 8 kilometers from the Kerch Strait.

Emergency services have confirmed the incident, stating, “A distress call was received this morning regarding the Volgoneft-212 tanker in trouble near the Kerch Strait.”

Update: russian media reported that Volgoneft-239 sunk near the Volgoneft-212 splitting in two as well.

Earlier, The Main Intelligence Directorate revealed 238 Russian vessels identified as part of a russian ‘shadow fleet’ of aging oil tankers.

[houseoftechno]

A Russian cargo ship, the Ursa Major, has reportedly sunk off the coast of Gibraltar after what is being described as a terrorist attack, according to Russian shipping and logistics company OboronLogistics.

The company said three powerful explosions hit the starboard side of the ship, ultimately leading to its destruction.

No further details were released about the operation or the ship's cargo.

Spanish authorities have officially confirmed that the Russian government-owned cargo ship MV Ursa Major has sunk the Western Mediterranean.

[kellyhound]

North Korean notes found on dead soldier how to combat those annoying Ukrainian drones and how to act when shelling comes in.

[houseoftechno]

Private Gyong Hong Jong's notes omitted step 2A from the drone kill tactic. Step 2A: Draw straws to select who is the designated live bait.

[kellyhound]

The Finnish Coast Guard has detained the Cook Islands-flagged oil tanker Eagle S, part of Russia's shadow fleet, on suspicion of damaging the Estlink 2 power cable.

The border guard asked the Eagle S to raise the anchor, but only the anchor chain surfaced.

At the time of the accident, other ships were also sailing in the area of ​​the incident. For example, the Hong Kong-flagged Xin Xin Tian 2. However, according to preliminary information, other ships are not currently suspected.

Meanwhile, three more cables have been damaged in the Gulf of Finland. The Estonian government has convened an emergency meeting.

[toms]

what do you think about funny russian orcs quadrobers , lol?

[kellyhound]

Originally Posted by kellyhound ↗

The Finnish Coast Guard has detained the Cook Islands-flagged oil tanker Eagle S, part of Russia's shadow fleet, on suspicion of damaging the Estlink 2 power cable.

The border guard asked the Eagle S to raise the anchor, but only the anchor chain surfaced.

At the time of the accident, other ships were also sailing in the area of ​​the incident. For example, the Hong Kong-flagged Xin Xin Tian 2. However, according to preliminary information, other ships are not currently suspected.

Meanwhile, three more cables have been damaged in the Gulf of Finland. The Estonian government has convened an emergency meeting.

Tanker Eagle S, seized by Finland on December 25 for damaging an undersea cable, had transmitting and receiving devices installed that effectively allowed it to become a “spy ship” for russia.

The hi-tech equipment on board was abnormal for a merchant ship and consumed more power from the ship’s generator, leading to repeated blackouts, a source familiar with the vessel who provided commercial maritime services to it as recently as seven months ago.

As well as Eagle S, another related tanker from the same ownership cluster, UK-sanctioned Swiftsea Rider, also had similar equipment installed.

Cook Islands-flagged Eagle S and Honduras-flagged Swiftsea Rider are two of 26 elderly russia-linked tankers with opaque ownership structures connected to three related shipmanagers, including two sanctioned by the UK government 12 months ago for “propping up Putin’s war machine”.

The sanctions-circumventing tankers were bought between 2022 and 2023 and placed under bareboat charter arrangements with Eiger Shipping, the shipping arm of russia oil trader Litasco.

Eagle S was boarded by Finnish forces investigating sabotage of the Estlink 2 undersea cable that disrupted the supply of electricity to Estonia from Finland.

The tanker slowed and dragged its anchor around the cable around midday, December 25, Finland’s police said. Another three cables were also damaged.

The source, who declined to be identified to protect their safety, supplied at least 60 confidential documents about Eagle S to Lloyd’s List in June, including the vetting report that outlined many safety deficiencies discovered during an inspection undertaken while at anchor in Danish waters that month.

These documents, and others relating to dark fleet tankers providing confidential and private information about class, insurance, and flag, and other technical and regulatory requirements, were verified as genuine at the time.

In July, Lloyd’s List reported the serious deficiencies on Eagle S that compromised environmental and crew safety, and underscored the poor maintenance and absence of adherence to regulatory and technical standards for the wider dark fleet.

The source has since provided additional information, telling Lloyd’s List that an unauthorised person, who was not a seafarer, had been identified on board Eagle S.

They said listening and recording equipment was brought on to the 20-year-old tanker via “huge portable suitcases” along with “many laptops” that had keyboards for Turkish and russian languages when calling at Türkiye and russia.

The equipment was kept on the bridge or in the “monkey island”, they said. The monkey island is the top-most place on the ship.

The transmitting and receiving devices were used to record all radio frequencies, and upon reaching russia were offloaded for analysis.

“They were monitoring all Nato naval ships and aircraft,” Lloyd’s List was told.

“They had all details on them. They were just matching their frequencies.

“russians, Turkish, Indian radio officers were operating it.”

Eagle S also dropped “sensors-type devices” in the English Channel during a transit, they said.

They said no further equipment returned to the ship after it was offloaded for analysis, to their knowledge, but other devices were placed on another related tanker, Swiftsea Rider.

Claims that russian-linked merchant ships are being used for spying and sabotage activities in the Baltic Sea where russia is surrounded by Nato allies underscores the rising geopolitical tension in the region amid calls by European political leaders for increased maritime infrastructure defence.

The damage to the Estlink 2 cable is the second time vital undersea cables between Nato allies have been damaged in two months, and the first time a commercial ship suspected of sabotage has been taken into custody by authorities.

In November, China-flagged bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 was accused of dragging anchor to damage the C-Lion 1 communication cable connecting Finland and Germany.

The bulk carrier spent more than four weeks in international waters in the Danish straits as German, Sweden, Danish and Finnish officials investigated but ended up sailing last Saturday.

The crew on Eagle S would have been aware of its spying activities “as this could not be hidden” but were “threatened with their life, so everybody kept quiet”, the source said.

“They have replaced captains when they raised this issue,” they said.

The beneficial owners of Eagle S and Swiftsea Rider are hidden behind complex corporate structures.

The registered owner of Eagle S is a single-ship structure that purports to have an office in the business centre of a luxury hotel in Dubai.

The shipmanager, Mumbai-based Peninsular Maritime India Private Limited cannot be contacted.

One of the telephone numbers on its website did not answer. A second number hung up when asked if this was the phone number for Peninsular Maritime. Emails were not answered.

The company’s website claims the company be registered in England, signalling it is likely a copy-and-paste of a template, commonly found in dark fleet shipping companies.

* Lloyd’s List defines a tanker as part of the dark fleet if it is aged 15 years or over, anonymously owned and/or has a corporate structure designed to obfuscate beneficial ownership discovery, solely deployed in sanctioned oil trades, and engaged in one or more of the deceptive shipping practices outlined in US State Department guidance issued in May 2020.

The figures exclude tankers tracked to government-controlled shipping entities such as russia’s Sovcomflot, or Iran’s National Iranian Tanker Co, and those already sanctioned.

Preliminary investigations in Finland found the russia-linked suspected “spy ship” Eagle S dragged its anchor along the seabed where the Estlink 2 undersea cable was damaged.

Nato said it has stepped up navy patrols to guard undersea cables as leaders in Baltic countries met to assess threats posed by the dark fleet* of russia-trading tankers to critical maritime infrastructure.

“We have been able to identify the dragging track at the seabed from the beginning to the end,” said investigation leader Sami Paila from Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation, who is leading the criminal investigation.

“The track is dozens of kilometres in length. For the time being, the possible location where the anchor came off has not been established,” he said in a statement.

Cook Islands-flagged panamax tanker Eagle S, part of the so-called dark fleet of sanctions-evading russia-trading tankers, was intercepted, boarded and seized by Finnish authorities suspected of sabotage shortly after the Estlink 2 undersea cable and four others were damaged on Christmas Day.

This is the first time that a merchant ship has been impounded by a government over undersea cable damage.

A Maritime lawyer appointed by the UAE-based registered owner of russia-linked, dark fleet tanker Eagle S today applied to the Helsinki District Court to overturn a seizure order that detained the ship in Finland, saying it was not equipped to remain in icy Baltic conditions.

Maritime lawyer Herman Ljungberg told Lloyd’s List that he represented Caravella LLC FZ, the registered owner of the Cook Islands-flagged panamax tanker accused of cutting the undersea cable of Estlink 2 and four other communications cables on Christmas Day.

With the caveat that Finnish authorities had placed some restrictions on what he could say, Ljungberg said in a phone interview that huge efforts were needed to keep the tanker safe and secure in its current location.

“My instructions do not come from russia,” Ljungberg said. “I just want to fix this problem. We have a tanker in the Finnish archipelago now seized and I think it’s in everybody’s interest to let her [Eagle S] sail away to her destination.

“The vessel is not built for winter conditions, the ice is coming now and I’m afraid it will cause huge problems. Who will take care of the vessel and cargo?”

Ljungberg has not been cleared to visit the ship, seized in an operation involving Finnish police, coast guard and navy shortly after the Christmas Day incident when Eagle S dragged its anchor over the submarine cable supplying electricity to Estonia from Finland.

The ship is now under naval and police guard after being escorted to the inner anchorage of Svartbäck in the Gulf of Scöldvik on December 29 with a missing anchor, for further investigation.

Police said the National Bureau of Investigation, which seized the vessel, is leading a criminal investigation into suspected aggravated criminal mischief.

This is the third merchant vessel in 14 months accused of sabotaging undersea cables in the Baltic affecting Nato members and the first to be impounded by authorities.

Eagle S is not an ice-strengthened vessel, lacking additional steel to withstand icy waters seen in the Arctic and the Baltic Sea during winter.

Ljungberg told Lloyd’s List the crew were interrogated by police on board the vessel without being offered legal assistance.

Ljungberg has not been able to board the vessel but has spoken to some of the crew by phone and could not comment on the condition of the ship.

There were at least 20 on board of Indian and Georgian nationalities, police have previously said.

“The state should be very thankful that the crew is on board the ship and is able to take care of the vessel,” Ljungberg said.

The court application was submitted this morning asking urgently for the order to be lifted and the ship to be allowed to sail. Ljungberg said he did not know when a decision would be made.

Eagle S was laden with unleaded gasoline loaded at the russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga on December 23, based on information compiled from vessel-tracking and Finland police.

Lloyd’s List revealed in July that Eagle S changed classification societies mid-voyage to the Indian Register of Shipping to avoid an unscheduled survey into its condition after a tanker vetting report in waters off Skaagen in Denmark in June revealed many deficiencies that compromised the environment and crew safety.

The tanker is part of a cluster of some 30 anonymously owned, elderly tankers connected to three shipmanagement companies in India and Dubai, including two sanctioned a year ago by the UK that have subsequently disbanded.

Eighteen have since been sanctioned by US, UK or EU regulators for facilitating sanctions-circumventing oil trades that facilitate and fund russia’s war on Ukraine.

[Roosta]

It may sound strange but Oil like Gold & other commodities have certain trace elements that can be tracked to specific regions & give it a very distinct characteristic, a fingerprint if you will & all you have to do is take a sample of the oils & you will have your answer where the oil came from & because of this you will find out where the ship has been by the oil samples that are left in the tanks as there's always some residue left / scraps if you will, as it's very hard to scrub out the pipes & tanks of all residue on these colossal sized ships & if it comes up positive, cease it, the ship that is & claim the oil, then send the old girl, the ship, to the bottom if they can't find a buyer to send a clear message to whoever to stop fucking around playing hide & seek, as you could have done that years ago but with all this GPS stuff & Satellites flying around to track you now days, it's virtually impossible to go unnoticed.