A view of the Fyodor Ushakov ice-breaking supply vessel moored at the Murmansk Marine Station and built for Sovcomflot to serve Sakhalin-2 oil and gas platforms.
A Sovcomflot vessel moored at the Murmansk Marine Station to serve Sakhalin-2 oil and gas platforms.Lev FedoseyevTASS via Getty Images
  • The UK government is considering banning all Russian ships from docking at British ports.
  • It comes as an oil tanker owned by Russia's Sovcomflot is scheduled to dock in Scotland on Tuesday.
  • A UK politician has called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to sanction Sovcomflot and ban Russian ships.

The UK government is looking at potentially banning Russian ships from sailing into British ports after concerns over a Russian oil tanker's expected docking in the UK on Tuesday.

The NS Champion, owned by Russian shipping company Sovcomflot, is set to arrive at Flotta Terminal in Orkney, Scotland, on Tuesday, according to ship-tracking site Vessel Finder.

More than 3,000 people have signed a petition calling for Sovcomflot's vessel to be refused entry into Flotta's port, and to ban other Russian ships docking at UK ports.

Alistair Carmichael, a Scottish politician who is a Member of Parliament for Orkney and Shetland, tweeted that he has urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to stop Russian-owned vessels, including the NS Champion, from entering British ports.

"It is imperative that you should act without delay to ensure that Sovcomflot is sanctioned and denied access for their vessels to British ports," Carmichael said in the letter to Johnson, which he posted on Twitter.

 

An Orkney Islands Council spokesperson told The Guardian that the government has said the Russian ship can't be refused to dock.

"We recognise the strength of feeling around this – feelings that we share – but we are bound by our legal obligations to accept the vessel, until such a time as the UK government tells us otherwise," the spokesperson told The Guardian.

The Orkney Islands Council didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

A spokesperson for the UK government told Insider that it's aware of the concerns about Russian ships docking in the UK and is "working rapidly to explore a range of measures to restrict access for them."

Meanwhile, Turkey has banned all of Russia's warships from accessing the Black Sea, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said on Saturday.

A ban on Russian-owned vessels would add to the sanctions placed on the country since its invasion of Ukraine last week.

The UK, and now the European Union, have banned all Russian airlines and planes from operating in their airspace.

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