News item | 28-01-2026 | 5:30 PM
The Dutch government wants to crack down on ships from the Russian shadow fleet that sail through the Dutch Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) under false flags. It must be possible to systematically inspect these types of ships, escort them to an anchorage and, in extreme cases, seize them.
Legislative changes that should make this possible are now being worked out urgently, so that they can be presented to the House of Representatives before the summer.
The Russian shadow fleet consists of ships that transport sanctioned Russian oil through shadowy structures. These ships are often in poor condition, which makes them a risk to nautical safety and the environment. In addition, they are probably also involved in espionage by the Russian state to map vital infrastructure such as data and electricity cables on the seabed.
Within territorial waters, countries have more powers to intervene against these types of ships, but in the case of the Netherlands, these ships often pass through the EEZ, where in principle the country whose flag the ship flies has primary authority over such a ship.
A ship flying a false flag does not have a flag state, which means that these rules do not apply and intervention is possible. That is why the Ministries of Infrastructure and Water Management and Justice and Security are urgently working on legislative changes to make intervention in these types of falsely flagged ships legally possible.
“With the shadow fleet, Russia finances its war machine in Ukraine and circumvents international sanctions. That is unacceptable,” says Minister of Infrastructure Robert Tieman. “As Europe, we have already taken many steps to combat this, but more is needed. With these steps we want to intervene more forcefully in the future when these types of ships sail through the Dutch part of the North Sea.
