A broken ship’s propeller foiled Russia’s attempt to circumvent sanctions

The ship already entered the port of Rostock in Germany at the beginning of March, because its crew concluded that there were problems with the ship’s propeller. Port officials noticed that the ship was carrying more than the uranium indicated in the documents.

There was wood on the ship, which is prohibited by the sanctions of the Western countries. It is indicated that the wood was connected to a company owned by a Russian oligarch, against whom both the European Union and the United States have imposed sanctions. BILD does not disclose the identity of this oligarch.

The newspaper “Ostsee-Zeitung” (OZ) states that the 193-meter-long cargo ship sails under the flag of the Marshall Islands and has been in the port of Rostock since March 4. According to two OZ sources, the ship went to the US to deliver enriched uranium needed for US nuclear power plants, as well as birch wood found on board. The value of the cargo is 40 million euros.

It is indicated that the ship belongs to a trucking company that has branches in Canada, USA, Russia (St. Petersburg), Ukraine (Odessa) and other countries.

It should be noted that Western countries have been actively discussing the need to impose an embargo on Russian uranium for two years. The bill in question was already approved by the US Congress in December 2023, but the White House is in no hurry to adopt it.

Russia continues to maintain a monopoly position in the uranium market – it controls almost 50% of the world’s uranium enrichment market. Western companies “Orano”, “Urenco” and “Centrus” are actively increasing the production volumes of uranium, preparing to replace Russian uranium supplies. It is not known when the West could get rid of its dependence on Russian uranium.