Russia's shadow war at sea
The Slow Newscast
Alice Sandelson
4.6 • 894 Ratings
🗓️ 3 February 2026
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
There are over a thousand oil tankers at sea that are helping finance Russia's war in Ukraine in plain sight. And they're not just trading in sanctioned oil, they're sabotaging the very infrastructure we all rely on. The UK and EU know about them, they pass right by our coasts, but so far have been unable to stop them at any sort of scale. This is the story of a shadow ship, sailing its way through sanctions, sabotage and subterfuge.
Credits:
Reporter/Producer: Matt Russell
Sound design: Dominic Delargy
Artwork: Lola Williams
Executive Producer: Gary Marshall
Editor: Jasper Corbett
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Observer. Hello, I'm Alexei Mostris and you're listening to the slow newscast from The Observer. |
| 0:17.0 | We've got a very modern story for you this week, but first, I want to take you back to |
| 0:22.3 | 1943. A group of American airmen is preparing to launch a critical strike. The target isn't |
| 0:30.2 | in Nazi Germany. It's in Romania, a small city called Plowesti, nestled in the foothills |
| 0:36.5 | of the Transylvanian Alps. |
| 0:39.0 | Ploueste is hardly a household name, but it's so important to the Nazi war effort that |
| 0:44.2 | the city is the second most heavily defended target in all of Axis-controlled Europe. |
| 0:50.3 | The first is Berlin. |
| 0:52.9 | Why is Ploueste so critical to the war effort? |
| 0:56.3 | One word. |
| 0:58.8 | The oil refineries around the city produce 40% of the petroleum used by the Axis powers. |
| 1:05.0 | Winston Churchill believes their destruction will deal the Nazis a knockout blow. |
| 1:10.6 | And so the US Army authorises Operation |
| 1:13.4 | Tidal Wave. Their plan is to fly a formation of B-22 bombers at tree-top level to Ploeste, out of |
| 1:21.2 | reach of defensive fighters. Such low-level flying is extremely dangerous, but the rewards are too great to pass up. |
| 1:30.0 | Early on the morning of Sunday, August 1st, 1943, 178 planes, loaded with 500 and 1,000-pound high-explosive bombs, |
| 1:40.9 | begin launching from airfields in Libya. Things quickly go wrong. The Germans identify |
| 1:47.3 | Ploueste as the intended target and alert the city's defenses. The commander of the raid tells |
| 1:53.4 | his men that doesn't matter. They're going to bomb the target no matter what. By the end of the day, |
| 1:59.9 | four refineries are damaged, but 532 airmen are left dead or captured. |
| 2:07.1 | 54 aircraft are lost. |
| 2:09.8 | Operation tidal wave turns out to be one of the costliest in the entire war. |
... |
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