UK Closes its Ports to Russian Shipping with EU Expected to Follow
Yatch belonging to Putin
• Hackers deface AIS data of Putin’s personal yacht
• Two Ukrainian commercial ships seized by Russians, Ukraine says
(TME) In the continuing effort to use economic and trade sanctions to punish Russia for the invasion of Ukraine, the United Kingdom confirmed earlier rumors that it is requesting all its ports to turn away all Russian shipping. A similar effort is also building momentum in the European Union, with countries ranging from Denmark to Spain calling for immediate actions.
The ban on shipping is the latest step in an increasing series of sanctions coming from western countries ranging from closing airspace to Russian planes to sanctions on banking and financial institutions and the wealthy political elite surrounding Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia at first dismissed the sanctions, but as the west moved to tighten the restrictions and encompass more of the Russian economy, the Kremlin on Monday acknowledged the detrimental impact as the Russian currency dropped dramatically in value and inflation and interest rates jumped.
“The Department for Transportation does not consider it appropriate for Russian vessels to continue to enter UK ports,” wrote the UK Secretary of State for Transportation Grant Shapps in a letter to the operators of all UK ports. “The maritime sector is fundamental to international trade, and we must play our part in restricting Russia’s economic interests and holding the Russia government to account.”
The pressure to deny Russian vessels access to UK ports started last week when it was pointed out that the country’s vessels were due to dock in Scotland as part of the oil trade. Russian vessels are used to move oil from the offshore platform as well as supporting the platforms.
The Member of Parliament for the Orkney and Shetland region had called on UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to take action as part of the sanctions. The issue however grew in urgency with the 110,000 dwt crude tanker NS Champion, registered in Liberia but operated by Sovcomflot, due to arrive at the Orkney’s Flotta oil terminal on March 1. Bloomberg is reporting that a total of three Russian-operated tankers are off the coast of the UK currently.
Shapps called on all UK ports not to provide access to any ship that is owned, controlled, chartered, or operated by any person connected with Russia, as well as any ships linked to designated persons in the sanctions expanding beyond ships registered in Russia and flying the Russian flag. The government also said it would support ports in identifying Russian ships and would communicate information to the relevant ports.
Speaking in the British House of Commons on Monday, Shapps said his letter was the first step to closing the ports. He promised to follow up with prohibiting legislation.
At the EU, Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Monday that they were among the countries supporting a similar move across the EU. Danish foreign minister Jeppe Kofod told reporters the effort would follow the earlier sanctions. Spain said it supports banning Russian ships from its ports and said the EU could move to ban the ships from all of its waters.
The Port of Rotterdam, Western Europe’s largest port, had previously said that Russian trade makes up 15 percent of the transshipment volumes at the port. They estimated that 62 million tons of goods transshipped at the port are Russia-oriented. They reported that nearly a third of the crude oil, a quarter of the LNG, and a fifth of each coal and oil products moving through the port relate to Russia. They noted that Russia also exports steel, copper, aluminum, and nickel through Rotterdam, but said that less than 10 percent of the container trade is linked to Rotterdam.
Meanwhile, Anonleaks, a German group affiliated with the activist hacking organization Anonymous, has tampered with the AIS data for the personal yacht of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The hackers have relocated the reported AIS position of the yacht Graceful to Snake Island, a small but strategic Ukrainian outpost which was seized by Russian forces last week. The group also changed the yacht’s reported callsign to “Anonymo,” and its new destination is not printable.
The Graceful’s actual position is in the Baltic Sea, on the opposite side of the European continent. Shortly before the invasion, she relocated from a shipyard in Hamburg to the Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad, where she cannot be reached by international sanctions.
Graceful is an 82-meter superyacht built by Russian yard Sevmash and fitted out by a well-regarded German shipbuilder. With three upper decks, the steel-and-aluminum vessel has spacious accommodations for 12 guests and 14 crewmembers. Boat International reports that her interior finishing includes “tooled leather, tapestry walls, marquetry, marble, stainless steel, ebony and untreated teak.”
In a statement, the hacking group said that its actions are not aimed at the Russian people, but at the government organs that enabled the invasion of Ukraine. “The operation targets Putin and the Putin-controlled state apparatus, state-owned companies, the state-controlled media, and individuals and private companies that have benefited from Putin’s autocratic system for decades,” the group wrote.
Anonymous claims that it has taken down more than 300 Russian media and bank websites since February 25. On Monday, it also hacked the home pages of multiple Russian state media websites to display an anti-war message, purportedly written by Russian journalists.
“We have been isolated from the whole world, they have stopped buying oil and gas. In a few years we will be living like North Korea,” said one message, displayed briefly on the homepages of TASS, Kommersant and Izvestia. “What is this for? So that Putin can get into the history books? It’s not our war, let’s stop him!”
(TME) In another report, two more Ukrainian commercial vessels with crews onboard have been seized by the Russian Navy in the northwestern part of the Black Sea amid Russia’s military attack on Ukraine.
“Yesterday, after declaring a ‘counter-terrorist operation’ in the northwestern part of the Black Sea, Russian Navy ships captured two more Ukrainian civilian ships,” the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine said on 27 February.
The Ukraine-flagged bulk carriers in question are the 35,400 dwt Afina and the 28,200 dwt Princess Nicole. They are owned by Russia’s Glorion SA and Ukraine’s Talliar Ltd, respectively, and commercially controlled by Ukraine’s Transship Co and Lebanon’s GMZ Ship Management, according to data provided by VesselsValue.
The 1983-built bulker Afina was captured in Romanian territorial waters by Russian warships, 22 miles from the Snake Island. The 1984-built Princess Nicole was seized while en route to Constanta, Romania, and headed for Snake Island.
They have nearly 50 seafarers on board and thousands of tons of diesel fuel and grain.
“Almost as soon as both civilian ships approached the Russian warships, the AIS was turned off and they stopped communicating,” the Ukrainian State Border Guard said.
As of 28 February, the vessels’ AIS data show they are located in the Black Sea, near the occupied Crimea.
“Commanders and officers of the Russian Navy are once again defiantly violating the rules of international maritime law, under the guise of a self-proclaimed counter-terrorist operation,” the border guard noted.
It added that the day before, the Russian Navy ships seized the Sapfir search and rescue ship, which left for Snake Island with a humanitarian mission.
*Culled from The Maritime Executive
• Two Ukrainian commercial ships seized by Russians, Ukraine says
(TME) In the continuing effort to use economic and trade sanctions to punish Russia for the invasion of Ukraine, the United Kingdom confirmed earlier rumors that it is requesting all its ports to turn away all Russian shipping. A similar effort is also building momentum in the European Union, with countries ranging from Denmark to Spain calling for immediate actions.
The ban on shipping is the latest step in an increasing series of sanctions coming from western countries ranging from closing airspace to Russian planes to sanctions on banking and financial institutions and the wealthy political elite surrounding Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia at first dismissed the sanctions, but as the west moved to tighten the restrictions and encompass more of the Russian economy, the Kremlin on Monday acknowledged the detrimental impact as the Russian currency dropped dramatically in value and inflation and interest rates jumped.
“The Department for Transportation does not consider it appropriate for Russian vessels to continue to enter UK ports,” wrote the UK Secretary of State for Transportation Grant Shapps in a letter to the operators of all UK ports. “The maritime sector is fundamental to international trade, and we must play our part in restricting Russia’s economic interests and holding the Russia government to account.”
The pressure to deny Russian vessels access to UK ports started last week when it was pointed out that the country’s vessels were due to dock in Scotland as part of the oil trade. Russian vessels are used to move oil from the offshore platform as well as supporting the platforms.
The Member of Parliament for the Orkney and Shetland region had called on UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to take action as part of the sanctions. The issue however grew in urgency with the 110,000 dwt crude tanker NS Champion, registered in Liberia but operated by Sovcomflot, due to arrive at the Orkney’s Flotta oil terminal on March 1. Bloomberg is reporting that a total of three Russian-operated tankers are off the coast of the UK currently.
Shapps called on all UK ports not to provide access to any ship that is owned, controlled, chartered, or operated by any person connected with Russia, as well as any ships linked to designated persons in the sanctions expanding beyond ships registered in Russia and flying the Russian flag. The government also said it would support ports in identifying Russian ships and would communicate information to the relevant ports.
Speaking in the British House of Commons on Monday, Shapps said his letter was the first step to closing the ports. He promised to follow up with prohibiting legislation.
At the EU, Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Monday that they were among the countries supporting a similar move across the EU. Danish foreign minister Jeppe Kofod told reporters the effort would follow the earlier sanctions. Spain said it supports banning Russian ships from its ports and said the EU could move to ban the ships from all of its waters.
The Port of Rotterdam, Western Europe’s largest port, had previously said that Russian trade makes up 15 percent of the transshipment volumes at the port. They estimated that 62 million tons of goods transshipped at the port are Russia-oriented. They reported that nearly a third of the crude oil, a quarter of the LNG, and a fifth of each coal and oil products moving through the port relate to Russia. They noted that Russia also exports steel, copper, aluminum, and nickel through Rotterdam, but said that less than 10 percent of the container trade is linked to Rotterdam.
Meanwhile, Anonleaks, a German group affiliated with the activist hacking organization Anonymous, has tampered with the AIS data for the personal yacht of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The hackers have relocated the reported AIS position of the yacht Graceful to Snake Island, a small but strategic Ukrainian outpost which was seized by Russian forces last week. The group also changed the yacht’s reported callsign to “Anonymo,” and its new destination is not printable.
The Graceful’s actual position is in the Baltic Sea, on the opposite side of the European continent. Shortly before the invasion, she relocated from a shipyard in Hamburg to the Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad, where she cannot be reached by international sanctions.
Graceful is an 82-meter superyacht built by Russian yard Sevmash and fitted out by a well-regarded German shipbuilder. With three upper decks, the steel-and-aluminum vessel has spacious accommodations for 12 guests and 14 crewmembers. Boat International reports that her interior finishing includes “tooled leather, tapestry walls, marquetry, marble, stainless steel, ebony and untreated teak.”
In a statement, the hacking group said that its actions are not aimed at the Russian people, but at the government organs that enabled the invasion of Ukraine. “The operation targets Putin and the Putin-controlled state apparatus, state-owned companies, the state-controlled media, and individuals and private companies that have benefited from Putin’s autocratic system for decades,” the group wrote.
Anonymous claims that it has taken down more than 300 Russian media and bank websites since February 25. On Monday, it also hacked the home pages of multiple Russian state media websites to display an anti-war message, purportedly written by Russian journalists.
“We have been isolated from the whole world, they have stopped buying oil and gas. In a few years we will be living like North Korea,” said one message, displayed briefly on the homepages of TASS, Kommersant and Izvestia. “What is this for? So that Putin can get into the history books? It’s not our war, let’s stop him!”
(TME) In another report, two more Ukrainian commercial vessels with crews onboard have been seized by the Russian Navy in the northwestern part of the Black Sea amid Russia’s military attack on Ukraine.
“Yesterday, after declaring a ‘counter-terrorist operation’ in the northwestern part of the Black Sea, Russian Navy ships captured two more Ukrainian civilian ships,” the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine said on 27 February.
The Ukraine-flagged bulk carriers in question are the 35,400 dwt Afina and the 28,200 dwt Princess Nicole. They are owned by Russia’s Glorion SA and Ukraine’s Talliar Ltd, respectively, and commercially controlled by Ukraine’s Transship Co and Lebanon’s GMZ Ship Management, according to data provided by VesselsValue.
The 1983-built bulker Afina was captured in Romanian territorial waters by Russian warships, 22 miles from the Snake Island. The 1984-built Princess Nicole was seized while en route to Constanta, Romania, and headed for Snake Island.
They have nearly 50 seafarers on board and thousands of tons of diesel fuel and grain.
“Almost as soon as both civilian ships approached the Russian warships, the AIS was turned off and they stopped communicating,” the Ukrainian State Border Guard said.
As of 28 February, the vessels’ AIS data show they are located in the Black Sea, near the occupied Crimea.
“Commanders and officers of the Russian Navy are once again defiantly violating the rules of international maritime law, under the guise of a self-proclaimed counter-terrorist operation,” the border guard noted.
It added that the day before, the Russian Navy ships seized the Sapfir search and rescue ship, which left for Snake Island with a humanitarian mission.
*Culled from The Maritime Executive
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