America is reclaiming its spot at the helm of the world stage. And evildoers are no longer safe.
Because the U.S. teamed up with one country to take down a 1,000-vessel fleet.
America’s Bold Stand Against Sanction-Busters
The United States, alongside Ukraine, is taking decisive action against a massive “dark fleet” of approximately 1,000 rogue oil tankers that evade sanctions to transport illicit crude from Iran, Venezuela, and Russia.
“There are about 1,000 vessels worldwide that are trading sanctioned crude tankers containing sanctioned Iranian, Venezuelan and Russian oil,” Michelle Wiese Bockmann of maritime AI firm Windward told Fox News Digital.
“These vessels are a lifeline for these regimes, because they’re used for shipping oil to fund the war in Ukraine, and also give money to the illicit Maduro regime,” she added.
Recent U.S. enforcement operations and Ukrainian strikes signal a robust new strategy to disrupt this funding stream for adversaries.
U.S. Enforcement Upholds Global Security
American forces recently seized the tanker Skipper in the Caribbean under a federal warrant, part of an assertive campaign to enforce sanctions and prevent sanctioned oil from reaching global markets.
Bockmann noted that U.S. authorities likely invoked Article 110 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, authorizing the boarding of stateless vessels.
“It’s my belief that they used Article 110, and they got on board that vessel, and they were absolutely entitled to remove that vessel from global trade,” she said.
“The recent Venezuelan tanker was carrying 1.8 million barrels of oil uninsured, so that’s a billion-dollar maritime disaster waiting to happen,” Bockmann said.
Attorney General Pam Bondi described the operation as a lawful sanctions-enforcement action, highlighting America’s commitment to countering threats from rogue regimes.
Precision Strikes and Maritime Risks
In the Black Sea, Ukraine has effectively targeted shadow fleet vessels with naval drones, carefully selecting empty tankers to minimize environmental harm while crippling Russia’s oil export capabilities.
“The three tankers that have been targeted by Ukraine are all in ballast, which means that they weren’t carrying oil,” Bockmann said.
“That was carefully chosen, and they were also falsely flagged, just like in the recent case of the three tankers attacked in Ukraine. That flag was Gambia. In the U.S. case of Skipper, the flag was Guyana,” Bockmann said.
These aging, often uninsured ships frequently manipulate AIS signals and fly false flags, posing serious dangers.
“This is all a billion-dollar oil spill catastrophe waiting to happen,” she added.
“This is a huge issue for maritime safety, it’s a menace to the environment, and it entails crew welfare,” Bockmann said.
“It is dangerous and could be interpreted as a form of gray-zone aggression in order to continue to keep oil revenue flowing,” Bockmann said.
“This is a brand-new problem for the U.S., and now Ukraine has signaled they are going to target these vessels the same way,” she said. “There is a new strategy to deal with this dark fleet, which is the lifeline of sanctioned oil revenues, and now under attack by the U.S. and Ukraine. The strategy is all to counter what we call gray-zone aggression.”
