Oil tanker on its way to Malta from Russian port

An oil tanker that originally left the Russian port of Taman is scheduled to arrive in Malta on Friday.

Times of Malta has not yet confirmed whether the tanker, flying an Italian flag, is transporting Russian oil, dubbed "blood oil" by anti-war activists.

However, Black Sea News, a site supported by the EU NGO European Endowment for Democracy, is claiming the San Felix is one of nine tankers transporting some 400,000 tons of Russian oil.

This tonnage of oil costs about $280 million, equivalent to the cost of about 40 Russian Kalibr cruise missiles, it claimed. Two other tankers that originally left from Russia, one headed to Italy, and the other one to Greece, also fly the Maltese flag. Black Sea News is run from Crimea.

According to the Marine Traffic site, which provides real-time information on the movements of ships, the tanker, which left Russia on February 16, is currently located in the Aegean Sea.

Over the past few days, there have been several calls to restrict trade in Russian oil.

Oleg Ustenko, an economic adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, has even made a plea to the US White House to restrict all trade in Russian oil by American companies.

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