Lloyd’s List, a leading maritime authority, and Reuters reported on August 11 local time:

“U.S. courts have authorized the government to dispose of two tankers seized and identified as part of a Russian-linked shadow fleet; the buyer is a Dubai-based ship recycling company, planning to tow them to the Alang shipbreaking yard in India for dismantling and recycling.”

Russian oil tankers are thus being treated as scrap metal. In response, Russia expressed strong outrage and retaliated accordingly.

Russia has labeled this act as “piracy in the 21st century,” arguing that the U.S. seizure of legally registered merchant vessels on the high seas violates the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

On August 12, Putin clearly stated: Russia will be “forced” to respond in kind by detaining European merchant vessels in an “equal” manner.

It has been reported that the Russian Pacific Fleet has already received new directives to prepare for seizing shadow fleets belonging to Western “unfriendly countries.”

This incident may have far-reaching implications—

* Maritime rules are being rewritten: The long-recognized principle of innocent passage for merchant ships is gradually eroding under unilateral sanctions. Once “seizure and scrapping” becomes a precedent, other major powers may follow suit, raising global maritime risks overall.

* Shadow fleets won’t disappear: As analysis indicates, shadow fleets are a product born out of extreme sanctions. As long as trade demand persists under sanctions, the market will inevitably generate new evasion methods. Simply targeting vessels without addressing the underlying trade demands only achieves temporary suppression.

* Civilian vessels are being weaponized: Shipowners, crew members, and other ordinary commercial actors are passively bearing unforeseen losses caught between great power rivalries. GMS CEO candidly admitted, “We can’t even tell who owned the ship before,” precisely reflecting the extreme opacity surrounding ownership in shadow fleets.

In summary, the symbolic significance of this event lies in the fact that U.S. sanctions against shadow fleets have evolved from “economic blockade” to “physical elimination”—no longer merely preventing operations, but directly turning your ships into scrap metal. This marks a qualitative shift in sanction tactics and foreshadows an intensification of great power competition over sea lanes of communication.

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1873396039389322/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) alone.