The End Of Putin's Shadow Fleet - DOCUMENTARY

The Shadow Fleet has been the lifeblood of Russia’s war machine since 2022.

Billions of dollars’ worth of oil have been transported across the planet in ageing, opaque tankers, operating in the shadows and largely uninterrupted. Until now.

This week, the United States seized Russian-linked vessels. Ukraine has begun striking shadow-fleet tankers with domestically produced drones. For the first time since the full-scale invasion, Russia’s maritime war economy is facing direct, sustained pressure.

If these actions continue into 2026, Russia could lose its ability to operate the Shadow Fleet altogether. And if that happens, the financial foundation of Putin’s war collapses with it.

In this documentary, I investigate how the Shadow Fleet works, why it was allowed to grow so large, and why the response from the West came so late. I travel to the Aegean Islands to document sanctioned Russian tankers operating just kilometres from European shores, and examine how these vessels fund a war being fought in Europe.

I also look back at the history of Russia’s use of civilian cargo ships for military purposes, from the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, to the Soviet war in Afghanistan, and later to Syria, where cargo vessels supplied the Assad regime through the port of Tartus.

The film includes interviews with Bill Browder, one of the leading experts on sanctions and Russian financial networks, as well as senior European officials and investigative journalists who have spent years tracking the Shadow Fleet’s operations.

All of my journalism is completely independent. I do not take government funding or sponsorships, so I can report freely and without influence.

If you would like to support this work, join my live streams, or help fund future investigations, you can find my Patreon via the link below.