India top destination for Russian ‘shadow fleet’ oil

Think tank says 30 false-flag tankers shipped EUR 2.1bn Russian oil to India in 2025

- PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

India imported 5.4 million tonnes of Russian oil worth EUR 2.1 billion between January and September 2025 aboard 30 vessels sailing under false flags, a European think tank said in a report Thursday.

The shipments formed the single largest national destination for crude moved by Russia's expanding "shadow fleet", according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

After the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Western countries imposed sanctions on Russian energy. Moscow is accused of dodging these by us-

ing shadow fleets - aged tankers operating in legal grey areas with obscure ownership, false registration papers, and disabled tracking system - to ship oil to consumers including China, India and Turkey.

Helsinki-based CREA said a total of 113 Russian vessels have flown a false flag in the first nine months of this year,