Russian Oil Tankers Going “Dark” Amid War in Ukraine

Russian oil tankers have been disappearing off the map for several hours at a time. They have
been turning off their transponders which causes them to disappear on the radar and the map.
There is an international regulation which makes oil tankers and other large ships to keep their
transponders on almost all the time. The only time they turn it off is when they go through a
place known for pirates.

When they turn their transponder off, it’s called “dark activity”. Russian oil tankers have been turning their transponders off a lot more since the Ukraine war.
With Russia’s dark activity going up by 600% and going dark for very long periods of time. It is
believed that they have been selling oil to other countries and to do so they go dark.
Russia started to turn off their oil tankers transponders before the war against Ukraine. When
they did beforehand it was somewhat noticeable and not as suspicious since it didn’t happen
that much. But when they went to war it increased a lot and they are believed to be doing it so
they don’t have to go through US sanctions.