US seizes Russian shadow fleet tanker Veronica

Burevestmarine also owns the US-captured Marinera tanker.

The US military seized the tanker Veronica, the sixth vessel of the “shadow fleet” involved in the illegal trade in Venezuelan oil, according to the US Southern Command.

“Vestka” found out that the seized tanker was built in 2003. At the time of capture, the ship formally already had a different name - Gallileo: the name change occurred on January 1, according to data from the Maritime Portal. And seven days before that - on December 25 - the tanker changed its flag and owner: it came under the Russian flag and began to belong to the Burevestmarine company, Vorstka discovered.

The same company owns the Marinera tanker, which the United States seized on January 7. The company was founded in July 2025 by businessman from Crimea Ilya Bugai. The research project “ System ” and “ Important Stories ” found that Burevestmarine is connected with the network of companies of the former Odessa deputy Viktor Baransky.

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Veronica was detained empty in the Caribbean Sea

The previous owner of the tanker (since March 2022) was the MG-Flot company, which is under sanctions from the US, EU and Ukraine. Since the fall of 2022, its owners have been hidden in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, but the sanctions lists contain information that the beneficiary of the company was Dagestan businessman Jamaldin Pashayev, a shareholder of the Astrakhan port of Olya, through which trade is carried out with Iran.

The capture of Veronica/Gallileo took place in the Caribbean Sea. According to Reuters , the ship sailed empty from Venezuela under the Guyana flag in early January. However, it did not return amid reports of activation of the US military, as other tankers did.

“Vorstka” previously told about how Baransky’s conglomerate is structured in the article: “ How Ukrainian and Russian sailors continue to work together after the start of the war ”: at the end of 2024, it included almost a hundred companies from at least 12 countries (including Great Britain, Estonia and Moldova), and the fleet consisted of at least 40 ships.

Photo: Screenshot of video of ship detention

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