An aging fleet of rusting, uninsured tankers are smuggling sanctioned Russian fossil fuels to international markets. (Canva)

Russia’s shadow tanker fleet skirts sanctions, fuels war—and more

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

Britain and Finland are discussing ways to foil a shadow fleet of tankers that has been skirting Western sanctions and smuggling Russian crude oil and diesel fuel out of the Baltic Sea to international markets.

Estimates of the number of tankers running illicit Russian oil vary wildly between 100 and 1,400. Uninsured and masked behind opaque ownership structures, they are believed to be transporting 90 million tonnes of oil through the Danish straits into the North Sea each month—and spying in the process.

The European Union slapped a US$60-a-barrel price cap on Russian oil in December 2022 to curtail Moscow’s ability to finance its war in Ukraine and avert a surge in global oil prices after embargoes on Russian crude.

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Kanao Inouye, known as the Kamloops Kid, is pictured while in custody in 1945.(Wikimedia)

The rise and fall of the Kamloops Kid

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

It was on or around Sept. 10, 1945, when the former Canadian prisoners of Ohashi prisoner-of-war camp in Japan laid eyes on their salvation.

The men, having been imprisoned since the fall of Hong Kong almost four years earlier, expected an American liberation. This they would receive but, for now, their visitors turned out to be a single Canadian army captain and a corporal.

The pair’s arrival confirmed that the war was indeed over. That unto itself was hardly a surprise, however, as Ohashi had been one of the first camps to learn of the Japanese capitulation on Aug. 15, 1945.

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Warships of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet blockaded Ukrainian ports and shelled cities before Ukrainian missile and drone attacks forced it into a withdrawal.(ALEXANDER DEMIANCHUK/TASS)

Russia’s Black Sea fleet falls back amid staggering losses

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

A third of Russia’s Black Sea fleet—more than 20 vessels—are believed to have been sunk or disabled in the 27 months since Moscow ordered its military to invade Ukraine.

The country of 38 million has no navy to speak of, yet Ukrainian drone and missile strikes have forced its formidable maritime foe into a strategic retreat.

“Most of the combat units, if you take the carriers of cruise missiles, have actually all been relocated, except for one loser who has not yet launched a single missile,” said Captain Dmytro Pletenchuk, apparently referring to a Karakurt-class corvette Tsiklon (Cyclone).

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• Skeletons found buried inside Hermann Göring’s former residence
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Original film poster for The Devil’s Brigade by Sandy Kossin.(Wikimedia)

American versus Canadian bravado: The Devil’s Brigade on the silver screen

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

Historian Mark Zuehlke was no older than 13 when he watched the Canadians march onto the big screen in 1968’s The Devil’s Brigade.

He remembers seeing the Americans, portrayed as unruly no-goods, pause mid-brawl as bagpipe-playing Canucks made a memorable entrance.

“A war film in that setting was always thrilling,” Zuehlke recalls, “and I was favourably impressed that it at least depicted Canadians, despite the fact—even to my kid’s mind—they didn’t really seem like anyone I knew.”

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