The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, in the "Marine Vessels" section of the War&Sanctions portal, has released dossiers on 139 vessels and 142 captains involved in the illegal transportation of sanctioned russian and Iranian oil, as well as stolen Ukrainian grain from temporarily occupied territories.

Exports of crude oil, petroleum products, natural gas, grain, coal, sulfur, and fertilizers remain among the key pillars of the russian economy, providing billions of dollars in revenue to the aggressor state's budget and financing its war against Ukraine.

Maritime exports from the Baltic and Black Sea regions represent a Kremlin-organized smuggling network that moves stolen Ukrainian grain and sanctioned oil and petroleum products under the guise of legitimate trade, primarily through russia's expanding shadow fleet.

As legitimate commercial activities of sanctioned vessels are being blocked worldwide, russia continues to build up its "ghost" tanker fleet, employing shell companies and false registries to preserve its export operations.

The latest publication highlights several key categories of vessels:

• Newly deployed shadow tankers used by russia since 2025 to bypass sanctions oversight;
• Vessels belonging to the shipping empire of Iranian oil magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, son of former Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani, who facilitates the transport of sanctioned Iranian oil to russia;
• Oil tankers linked to Astrakhan businessman jamaldin pashayev, involved in the logistics of the "North–South" trade corridor with Iran. Pashayev and his companies have also been implicated in supplying lethal aid to russia's "Alabuga" Special Economic Zone with Iranian support.
• Maritime vessels used to export stolen Ukrainian grain, which russia fraudulently sells on global markets as its own produce;
• russian and foreign ships engaged in illegal calls to closed Ukrainian ports in temporarily occupied territories.

Currently, the "Maritime Vessels" section of the War & Sanctions portal contains data on more than 1,200 vessels, over half of which belong to russia's so-called shadow fleet, and nearly 300 captains directly complicit in violating the international sanctions regime.