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Russia Ramps Up GPS Spoofing to Conceal Movements of Shadow Fleet Oil Tankers
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Russia is increasingly relying on GPS spoofing—deliberate manipulation of satellite navigation data—to obscure the routes and activities of vessels linked to its so-called shadow fleet.
This was reported by Ukrainian Navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk during a national telethon on January 15.
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Pletenchuk said Russia initially trialed the GPS spoofing tactic in the eastern Black Sea. The approach was designed to achieve several objectives, including confusing Ukrainian monitoring efforts and protecting tankers and their crews from repercussions for transporting oil subject to international sanctions.
“Later, an economic component also emerged: when you distort GPS coordinates, no one can actually prove that these vessels were loaded in a specific port. In this way, they try to avoid responsibility for the captains and ships that transport sanctioned Russian oil,” the spokesperson said.
He explained that, based on MarineTraffic data, the vessel appeared to have been loaded “somewhere in a forest.”
He also pointed to an additional complication, noting that Ukraine’s expert committee does not formally use the term “shadow fleet,” since all ships are considered to have registered owners. Many of those owners, Pletenchuk said, are based in Europe, making any action against such vessels largely a matter of political decision-making rather than purely technical enforcement.
In parallel, the United Kingdom is exploring legal and policy mechanisms that could allow oil seized from Russia’s shadow fleet to be redirected to support Ukraine’s war effort, The Times reported on January 13, citing a government source.
The proposals under consideration would aim not only to cut off revenue streams fueling Russia’s war machine but also to channel proceeds from sanctioned oil toward Ukraine. It remains uncertain whether such measures could be implemented in practice.
“There would be a double impact on Russia’s war machine—we wouldn’t just be depriving them of illicit war revenues but also finding a way to help fund Ukraine’s resistance,” the source said.
Earlier, it was reported that at least seven oil tankers associated with Venezuela’s so-called shadow fleet abruptly changed course within a single day to avoid being intercepted by US forces operating in the Caribbean.
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