India imported 5.4 million tonnes of Russian oil valued at €2.1 billion between January and September 2025, utilizing 30 vessels operating under false flags, according to a report released Thursday by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
The report indicates that these shipments represent the largest single national destination for crude transported by Russia’s increasingly prominent “shadow fleet.” Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Western nations imposed sanctions on Russian energy, prompting Moscow to use shadow fleets—aged tankers that navigate legal gray areas with ambiguous ownership, false registration documents, and disabled tracking systems—to ship oil to consumers, including India, China, and Turkey.
CREA identified that a total of 113 Russian vessels had flown false flags in the first nine months of 2025, accounting for 13 percent of all Russian crude oil, which amounts to 11 million tonnes valued at €4.7 billion ($5.4 billion). By the end of September, there were 90 Russian shadow vessels operating under false flags, a significant six-fold increase from December 2024.
When contacted by PTI regarding these false-flagged vessels transporting oil to India, CREA confirmed that 30 such vessels delivered crude oil to India during the first nine months of 2025. Of the €4.7 billion worth of Russian oil carried by falsely flagged tankers, €2.1 billion comprised the shipments to India.
Historically reliant on Middle Eastern oil, India dramatically increased its imports from Russia after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, as Western sanctions and reduced European demand led to discounted Russian oil. Consequently, India’s imports of Russian crude climbed from less than 1 percent to nearly 40 percent of its total crude oil imports in a short time. As of November, Russia remained India’s primary supplier, accounting for over a third of all crude oil imports.
Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, all vessels at sea must display a flag that provides legal jurisdiction. Some countries operate open registries, allowing foreign-owned ships to register under more lenient regulations—a practice exploited by shippers seeking flexibility. CREA’s report noted that 96 sanctioned vessels had flown false flags at least once this year as of the end of September. Additionally, 85 vessels experienced at least two flag changes six months after being sanctioned by the European Union, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), or the United Kingdom.
Six flag registries that had not flagged a Russian ship since February 2022 each had at least 10 such vessels in their fleets by September 2025, totaling 162 shadow vessels, according to CREA.
“The number of Russian shadow tankers sailing under false flags is now increasing at an alarming rate. False-flagged vessels carried €1.4 billion worth of Russian crude oil and oil products through the Danish Straits in September alone,” stated Luke Wickenden, Energy Analyst and co-author of the report. He emphasized that the insurance for any vessel flying a false flag is void, combined with the fact that many of these tankers are aged and re-commissioned from near-scrap status, heightening risks for coastal states along their routes in the event of accidents or oil spills.
CREA has urged the EU and UK to lead global reforms, pointing out that false-flag operations contravene Article 94 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and pose escalating environmental and security threats to European and British coastlines. The think tank argued that detaining such vessels would disrupt Russia’s export logistics, increase costs, and diminish the reliability of oil flows that support Moscow’s military efforts.
“In addition to the risks of false flagging, we also see that shadow vessel operators are exploiting the capacity limitations of economically weaker nations to manipulate their flags and existing regulations for passage rights to deliver illicit oil,” remarked Vaibhav Raghunandan, CREA EU-Russia Analyst & Research Writer and co-author of the report. “It falls upon the international community to advocate for reforms in flag state regulations, provide assistance in enhancing flag registries, and detain misflagged vessels to constrain shadow operations that finance Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.”
