THE addition of nearly 300 ships to sanctions lists in the EU and UK this month has tipped the total number of tankers subject to restrictions to more than 10% of the global tanker fleet.

The addition of almost 200 ships in the EU’s most recent package of sanctions confirmed on Tuesday, in addition to over 120 UK ships listed this month, brings the number of ships on sanctions lists to 706 distinct tankers. The live fleet of crude and product tankers over 10,000 dwt stands at 6,926 ships.

That means just over 10% of the fleet is now sanctioned, or 14% on deadweight tonnage terms.

The 17th package of sanctions targeting Russia was billed as the EU’s largest-ever package targeting Putin’s shadow fleet, doubling the number of vessels included in the list of those subject to a port access ban and ban on provision of a broad range of services.

A total of 189 vessels were targeted, bringing the tally of EU designated vessels to 342.

In a separate, but coordinated announcement, the UK also added another 18 ships to its sanctions list alongside 46 financial institutions that help Russian attempts to evade sanctions.

The UK had already listed 110 ships in a separate announcement earlier this month.

The ramped up scale and coordination between Europe and UK has emerged in stark contrast to a recent absence of US sanctions despite public lobbying from European leaders asking the Trump administration to join them.

London and Brussels said their new measures would zero in on Moscow’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers and financial companies that have helped it avoid the impact of other sanctions imposed over the war.

In addition to the extensive list of individual ships included in this round of sanctions, both the EU and UK have widened the scope of companies and individuals being targeted.

The EU has been targeting the shadow fleet ecosystem in recent packages, specifically actors enabling the operation of the shadow fleet, but the latest round includes several from third countries including entities from the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Türkiye and Hong Kong.

The EU list also continued to target insurers of Russian ships, this time listing Russian oil giant Surgutneftegas and prominent shadow fleet insurer VSK, which had already been listed by earlier UK sanctions.

The UK, meanwhile, included several new individuals on the list including two Russian captains of shadow fleet tankers and John Michael Ormerod, a British national who procured ships for Russia’s shadow fleet.

The inclusion of Ormerod was specifically designed to send a strong message that there would be a “personal cost to those who are supporting Russia’s trade in oil”, explained the UK statement, citing the UK foreign secretary’s personal mission to constrain the Kremlin.

Ormerod gained notoriety last year when the Financial Times reported he had acquired at least 25 secondhand oil tankers between December 2022 and August 2023 on behalf of Lukoil, Russia’s second-largest oil producer, at a total cost of more than $700m.

Each ship was bought by a different special purpose company incorporated by Ormerod in the Marshall Islands, but Lukoil’s Dubai-based Eiger Shipping provided the funds by paying in advance to charter the vessels.

Eiger Shipping was included in today’s EU sanctions package on the basis that it “enabled the procurement of numerous vessels forming part of the so-called shadow fleet”.

According to the EU rationale, those vessels have “transported oil from Russia while turning off or manipulating their AIS transponders, while not maintaining adequate liability insurance or other financial security, and while carrying out unsafe maritime operations”.

Almost all of the ships designated in the latest EU package were included on the basis that they were engaged in Russian oil trade, “while practicing irregular and high-risk shipping practices”. That rationale marks a notable shift from earlier packages which had concentrated on the ships that had breached the oil price cap rules.

While the price cap has continued to be cited by politicians, it is increasingly not featuring as part of the sanctions discussions with industry officials.

Nevertheless, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas today stressed that since the EU introduced the oil price cap and sanctions on the shadow fleet, relevant Russian revenues had decreased by €38bn ($42.8bn). Russian revenues in March 2025 were 13.7% lower than those in March 2023 and 20.3% lower than those of March 2022.

“This round of sanctions on Russia is the most wide-sweeping since the start of the war,” said Kallas. “While Putin feigns interest in peace, more sanctions are in the works. Russia’s actions and those who enable Russia face severe consequences. The longer Russia persists with its illegal and brutal war, the tougher our response will be.”

EU ministers are understood to be discussing a potential lowering of the oil price cap as part of the next round of sanctions already being worked on.

Ships included in the now dramatically extended list of sanctioned entities will now be subject to a port access ban and ban on provision of a broad range of services within the EU, however very few of the tankers listed were engaging in these services to start with.

The ships included will continue to be able to trade lawfully, sailing through EU waters including the Gulf of Finland where the passage of shadow fleet tankers has become the subject of increased tension between the EU and Russia.

One particular tanker, Jaguar (IMO: 9293002), has become the focus of both EU and UK scrutiny and has now been included on both sanctions lists.

A Russian fighter jet entered Estonian airspace without permission following the attempts by the Estonian navy to escort Jaguar out of its waters last week, prompting Nato to scramble jets in response. Jaguar remains anchored in Primorsk, but its next passage back through EU waters will be watched carefully following its addition to the EU sanction list.

The EU was already at work on its next package of sanctions, its 18th, to increase pressure on Moscow to end its war against Ukraine, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said last week.