The shadow fleet for Russian oil is replenished with dozens of tankers every month.

The number of ships involved amounts to approximately 25-35 every month. According to CNN, approximately 600 tankers (10% of the global market) are generally used to transport Russian oil. Experts divide vessels transporting Russian oil into “gray” and “dark” ships. Gray ships sold products from EU owners to firms in the Middle East and Asia after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Dark ships belong to Iranian and Venezuelan companies. In most cases, “dark ships” disable their automatic identification system, which allows vessels to be identified, its dimensions, and route, making it almost impossible to track them. Even though Western countries have banned nearly all imports of Russian oil, foreign ships are not prohibited from delivering it to buyers. It is noted that European-owned vessels accounted for 36% of the volume of Russian oil trade transactions in January.