Vladimir Putin is diverting some of his most advanced warships to escort sanctioned and shadow fleet oil tankers near to UK waters – including one frigate armed with hypersonic missiles earlier this month.
Experts tracking Russian flagged and “shadow fleet” ships are monitoring whether the Kremlin will look to sail through the English Channel and North Sea to send a message after making fresh threats of retaliation over Britain’s increasing support for Ukraine.
Open-source evidence reveals that earlier this month the Russian warship Admiral Kasatonov escorted a cargo ship through the Baltics before entering the North Sea and heading north past Norway.
The Admiral Kasatonov is regarded as one of the most advanced warships in the Russian navy, equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles and nuclear-capable Zircon hypersonic missiles, which would have been in range of the UK during this trip.
Flight tracking software shows that it was being followed by the RAF’s P-8A Poseidon aircraft, which spent around 90 minutes circling as it sailed past Norway, surveiling the two vessels.
English Channel a ‘risky’ route for Putin’s shadow fleet
The shadow fleet has become a lifeline for Putin’s war effort, with ships suspected of sailing under false flags in order to evade blockades and continue to make money from sanctioned oil. Around 75 per cent of Russia’s crude oil is transported by Putin’s decrepit and ageing fleet of ships.
In June, the UK captured the shadow oil tanker Smyrtos, which spooked the Kremlin and led to a four-day freeze of Russian-linked vessels passing through the Channel. Days later another of Putin’s warships, the Admiral Grigorovich, fired “warning” shots at British couple Alan and Jane Kelvey‘s sailing boat the Bright Future.
The oil tanker Smyrtos continues to sit outside Portland harbour, pictured here on August 10, 2026 (Photo: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images)However, since 18 June, when the Forwarder vessel passed through the Channel en route to China, illicit ships have resumed regularly passing through the busy waterway.
One recent example noticed by military analysts was the Russian cargo ship Ascalon. The company which owns the ship is sanctioned by the UK and US, with US documents raising concerns it may be used to transport military hardware. The vessel left St Petersburg on 7 August and was captured leaving the English Channel and sailing towards the Atlantic Ocean on 14 August.
Sanctioned Russian Ro-Ro ASCALON (IMO 9198226) is about to exit the English Channel, heading west with no destination declared.It departed St Petersburg on August 7 after a period of maintenance.Previously involved in Russia's Syrian Express, ASCALON is worth… pic.twitter.com/4KqX4Pu05z
— Russian Forces Spotter (@TiaFarris10) August 14, 2026An open-source expert monitoring the vessel, who did not want his identity to be published and who goes by Russian Forces Spotter on X, said that since around mid-June, roughly 75 per cent of the sanctioned crude tankers he was tracking had avoided the English Channel, instead routing north via the Faroe and Shetland corridor.
“Many of the same vessels were previously using the Channel routinely,” he said. “I would be cautious about attributing this to any single event, including the seizure of Smyrtos, but the persistence of the routing change suggests that operators increasingly perceive the Channel as the riskier option.”
British military ships and helicopters spent 21 days monitoring Russian activity in UK waters and the North Atlantic throughout July, an increase of 25 per cent compared to last year, according to the latest available Ministry of Defence Data.
UK in missile-range of Kremlin warships
Other Russian-linked ships are taking pains to avoid sailing close to the UK in other waters.
In August, the Portovvy was tracked leaving Portovaya LNG terminal, a small gas export facility near Vysotsk, northwestern Russia. The ship, accompanied by the Admiral Kasatonov, hugged the coast of Norway, passing the UK but giving a wide berth.
Another Russian frigate, another tanker.Just three days after returning to Baltiysk, ADMIRAL KASATONOV sailed again and was photographed yesterday in the Fehmarnbelt alongside LNG tanker PORTOVYY (IMO: 9246621).The frigate has already been used to escort Russian… pic.twitter.com/O9TTUeTmN1
— Russian Forces Spotter (@TiaFarris10) August 18, 2026The Kasatonov’s hypersonic missiles have a range of 625 miles, while its cruise missiles have a range of up to 1,550 miles, meaning the UK will have been in range of the warship during parts of its journey.
The boats were tracked sailing north past Norway on 19 August at around 3pm UTC (4pm UK time), while flight tracking data shows the RAF Poseidon took off from Lossiemouth, Scotland, at around 5.30pm UTC (6.30pm UK time). The maritime patrol aircraft followed the route of the boats for around 90 minutes.
The use of the Kasatonov is notable, according to the open-source expert Russian Forces Spotter. “Russia increasingly appears willing to dedicate high-end naval assets to protecting its maritime trade.”
He added: “The routing data suggests continued caution around British waters, while the escorts show that Moscow considers protecting these maritime flows important enough to commit valuable naval assets to the task. Whether that reflects nervousness, stretched resources, or both is harder to prove, but the behavioural change is quite visible.”
It is the second Russian warship to be seen in the Baltic in recent weeks, according to The Telegraph, following the deployment of the destroyer Admiral Levchenko in late July.
The Royal Navy’s Portsmouth-based minehunter HMS Hurworth was dispatched to keep watch over Russian frigate Admiral Makarov as it passed the UK on 22 August.
We've combined AIS and sentinel 1 SAR with OSINT from @te3ej, @WarshipCam, @RFNOSBlog and others to locate RFN Admiral Grigorovich and RFN PM-82 conducting resupply off the UK's Galloper wind farm, in what is now a regular RFN operation. t.co/H2PxkRsBu6 pic.twitter.com/LKc5WmH9Wa
— Starboard Maritime Intelligence (@StarboardIntel) June 11, 2026The location of the Admiral Grigorovich, the warship which fired shots in the English Channel in June, is not known. Many Russian warships do not allow their location to be tracked, but the frigate was last seen around 11 June when it was tracked by Starboard Maritime Intelligence off the coast of the UK.
Russia spread thin as UK monitors
Experts say Putin is deploying his high-end ships despite Russia’s maritime strength being stretched.
The naval tracking company Starboard Maritime Intelligence told The Insider that in July no Russian warships were recorded in the Mediterranean for the first time since 2013.
A number of factors may have been at play here, the company said, including shipping lane closures and that warships “are tied up escorting vessels around UK waters and occasionally firing warning shots at yachts.”
A further blow to the Kremlin’s navy was the successful Ukranian drone strike on a Russian port which hit four vessels, including two ships similar to the Admiral Grigorovich.
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