The UK unveiled its biggest Russia sanctions package in years on Tuesday, targeting Moscow’s shadow fleet and the key networks and infrastructure that have helped keep crude exports flowing since the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war.

Britain sanctioned 175 companies in the 2Rivers network and separately designated PJSC Transneft, one of the world’s largest oil pipeline companies, which the UK said is responsible for transporting more than 80 percent of Russia’s oil exports. The new measures coincide with the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“Russia is now four years into what Putin believed would be a three-day invasion,” UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said in a statement. “The UK has today taken decisive action to disrupt the critical financing, military equipment,  and revenue streams that sustain Russia’s aggression, in our largest raft of measures since the early months of the invasion.”

The 2Rivers network, linked to Azeri traders Etibar Eyyub and Tahir Garayev, has been instrumental in keeping hundreds of millions of barrels of Russian crude moving despite international sanctions, Bloomberg reported in October. 

Previously known as “Coral,” the network of offshore entities rapidly grew before sanctions imposed by the EU and UK in 2024 inhibited its ability to operate, the news outlet said. The sanctions ultimately increased the cost of related trades and pushed Western banks, insurers, and professional services firms to avoid the network, according to Bloomberg. 

Such pressures forced the network to pay higher insurance premiums, accept longer and more opaque shipping routes, and cut per-barrel prices as brokers, refiners, storage operators, and ports either refused to deal with them or raised costs to reduce their own exposure, the news outlet said. 

Tuesday’s action targets some 49 entities and individuals supporting Russia’s war machine through the provision of supplies and technology, three nuclear energy companies attempting to secure contracts for new Russian installations overseas, six entities within Russia’s Liquified Natural Gas industry, and nine Russian banks that process cross-border payments tied to the financing of Moscow’s war on Kyiv. 

Read the UK announcement here

Read more at Bloomberg