Maritime Risk Managers, carriers on high alert after suspected shadow fleet casualties

Insurance News

By Matthew Sellers

Nov 28, 2025Share

Two tankers long associated with sanctioned Russian oil trades caught fire on Friday in separate incidents in the Black Sea, prompting large-scale rescue operations by Turkish authorities and deepening anxieties in a region already troubled by naval mines and shadow-fleet activity.

The vessels — the Kairos, a 274-meter tanker, and the Virat, an aframax-class ship — were traveling in waters north of Turkey when each reported what officials described as an external impact. Both ships are among the group of vessels targeted by Western sanctions for transporting Russian crude. In recent years, these tankers have typically operated with limited transparency, patchy regulatory oversight and irregular insurance arrangements, characteristics that have unnerved risk assessors even in quieter weeks.

The Kairos, which was en route to the Russian port of Novorossiysk, issued a distress call roughly 28 nautical miles off Turkey’s Black Sea coast. The ship, sailing in ballast under the Gambian flag, suffered a blast that ignited a fire. Turkish rescue authorities deployed two rescue boats, a tug and an emergency response vessel, eventually retrieving all 25 crew members without injury.

Read next: Collision in the Gulf sparks renewed concern over shadow fleet, war risk exposure

Shortly afterward, further east in the Black Sea, the Virat reported a similar event about 35 nautical miles offshore. Personnel on board detected heavy smoke in the engine room. A commercial ship in the vicinity joined rescue teams sent by Turkey, and all 20 crew members were reported safe.

Shipping agency Tribeca said the explosion aboard the Kairos originated in the engine room and noted that reports indicated the tanker “may have struck a mine and be in danger of sinking.” Maritime intelligence analyst Michelle Wiese Bockmann observed online that the vessel had recently been removed from the Gambian registry along with dozens of others due to “fraudulently issued certificates,” which she said rendered the tanker “flagless, stateless, and any insurance and class (if it has any) invalidated by the fact that it’s falsely purporting to fly the flag of Gambia.” She added, “The ship is in ballast, which is the lesser of two evils, but I’ve long maintained the dark fleet is an accident waiting to happen and incidents like this are but a harbinger of what is to come.”

Read next: Insurance checks on foreign vessels to tighten in face of Russian shadow fleet

Turkish officials said that shipping traffic through the Bosphorus continued uninterrupted, despite visible plumes of smoke rising from one of the damaged tankers. Images released by Turkey’s Maritime Affairs Directorate showed flames climbing from the deck of the Kairos.

Read next: Canada sanctions Russian drone makers, 'shadow fleet' vessels

Although the cause of the explosions has not been confirmed, recent history offers an ominous context. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, more than 100 naval mines have been identified across the Black Sea, including anchored devices that have broken free as well as drifting ordnance that has traveled far from original deployment zones. Various cargo ships have struck mines over the last three years, including a Panama-flagged carrier in late 2023 and an Estonian vessel that sank near Odesa in 2022.

Analysts broadly attribute most mine-laying operations in the region to Russian forces, particularly in areas near occupied Crimea and along approaches to Ukrainian ports. Mine-clearance efforts by Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania are ongoing, but the scale of the problem — as well as the mobility of drifting mines — has made full decontamination elusive.

These latest incidents underline the evolving hazards associated with the so-called shadow fleet, whose vessels often operate outside typical compliance frameworks. Some ships in this network lack verifiable insurance and certification, raising the risk of costly maritime casualties, environmental damage and complex claims disputes.

Read next: Sanctions-evading Russian oil ships could pollute the Arctic, PM's adviser

For insurers and brokers, the twin explosions underscore the widening gulf between conventionally managed fleets and those tied to sanction-evading oil trades. Coverage questions — particularly for vessels with unclear flag status, dubious certification or opaque ownership — are likely to intensify as the region remains exposed to mine hazards and geopolitical risk. In the Black Sea, a shipping route on which insurers once relied on predictable risk modelling, the margin of uncertainty continues to expand.

As the fires burn out and salvage teams assess whether either tanker can be recovered, one fact is clear: the operating environment for underwriters and maritime risk specialists in the region has grown even more unpredictable. The incidents offer yet another reminder that in a sea already crowded with drifting ordnance, the risks associated with shadow-fleet tankers cannot easily be contained.