Russian Warship Masked Identity to Move Through English Channel

A Russian naval vessel disguised its identity to move through the English Channel on Sunday. 

The Russian warship was escorting two sanctioned Russian oil tankers and broadcast a fake identification over its Automatic Identification System (AIS).

Using satellite imagery, the BBC identified the vessel as the Boikiy, a corvette-class Russian warship armed with guided missiles.

The Boikiy was returning from a diplomatic mission in West Africa, where it met two sanctioned oil tankers, the Sierra and the Naxos, which were returning from India. 

The oil tankers reached the mouth of the English Channel on June 20, where they were escorted by the Boikiy. Later they were recorded passing under Denmark’s Great Belt Bridge heading towards the Baltic Sea.

Russia relies on a “shadow fleet” of aging oil tankers to evade sanctions against its oil industry.

The UK recently introduced more sanctions on Russia’s shadow fleet as it moves to deprive Moscow of assets for its war against Ukraine.

Russia has consistently provoked its European neighbors in the protection of its shadow fleet. Last month, Russian fighter jets entered Estonian airspace after an Estonian naval vessel attempted to intercept a sanctioned Russian oil tanker in the Baltic Sea.

In January, the Russian spy ship Yantar was spotted near the UK’s coast, according to the New York Times.