Russia hides shadow fleet tankers using GPS spoofing – details

Russia is using GPS spoofing to mask the movements of its “shadow fleet”, Ukrainian Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk said on the national telethon.

The main purpose of such manipulation is to bypass international sanctions and conceal oil exports. According to the navy spokesman, Russia initially tested and refined the technology of falsifying satellite data in the eastern Black Sea.

At first, the tactic was aimed mainly at military objectives — misleading Ukraine’s defense forces. But over time, it took on a clear economic dimension.

Now GPS spoofing is used as a tool to protect tankers and their crews from international pursuit for transporting sanctioned energy resources.

How tankers appear “in the forest”

The scheme works by falsifying geolocation data. When a vessel switches on spoofing, its real location is hidden and instruments show coordinates elsewhere.

“If you spoof GPS coordinates, nobody can prove the ships were loading in that port. That way they avoid liability for captains and vessels handling sanctioned Russian oil. On MarineTraffic, the ship looked like it was loading in a forest,” Dmytro Pletenchuk explained.

This makes it harder to legally prove oil was loaded at a Russian port.