Myanmar’s junta is dodging sanctions the hard way, running hidden fuel routes and sending ghost ships for air attacks to keep bombing civilians without the world watching. Amnesty International’s extensive new study demonstrates how the government has adopted evasion strategies from strongly sanctioned countries such as Russia, Iran, and North Korea. These strategies enable the junta to import huge quantities of aviation fuel, which fuels airstrikes, making 2025 the deadliest year on record for aerial attacks on civilians since the 2021 coup.According to the research, Myanmar imported over 109,000 tonnes of jet fuel in 2025, a 69% increase from the previous year and the greatest volume since the military deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratic administration in February 2021. This fuel surge has directly permitted increased bombing campaigns against villages, displacement centers, schools, and medical facilities, frequently leaving civilians without warning or protection.
The Regime’s Shadow Fleet Tactics
Amnesty’s investigation maps out the junta’s complex supply network using trade data, satellite images, shipping records, and port logs. Vessels that purposefully turn off their Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders, making them disappear from global real-time marine tracking, are at the center of these hidden fuel routes. Some broadcast fictitious locations, while others often and suspiciously alter ship names, flags, or ownership information , classic tactics to hide origins and destinations.
The study verified that just four vessels delivered at least nine different supplies of aviation fuel between mid-2024 and the end of 2025. Completely avoiding normal ports is a crucial feature of these operations. Rather, tankers pump fuel from one ship to another away from land-based observation during hazardous ship-to-ship transfers on the high seas. These ghost ships are similar to the “shadow fleet” tactics employed for many years by Iranian oil exporters and, more recently, by Russian tankers avoiding Western sanctions after their invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Similar strategies have long been used by North Korea to import oil.
The Devastating Human Toll of Aerial Bombardments
The constant supply of aviation fuel has led to a relentless increase in air attacks throughout areas controlled by resistance. Bombs strike without notice, devastating homes, marketplaces, and gathering spots, with civilians bearing the brunt. Populations are particularly vulnerable because many targeted locations lack effective air defenses.
Due to limited access, it is difficult to independently verify the precise number of civilian casualties from airstrikes alone, but the total toll since the coup is alarming. Over 7,700 citizens have been killed nationally by state security forces, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). Air strikes, which have become more regular and indiscriminate, are mostly responsible for these killings.
Cutting off the junta’s aircraft fuel supply is one of the best methods to curb its destructive potential, according to civil society organizations, ethnic armed groups, and democratic activists.
“Five years after the coup, our analysis shows that the Myanmar junta continues to evade sanctions and find new ways to import the jet fuel it uses to bomb its own civilians – with 2025 being the deadliest year on record for aerial attacks since the junta takeover in 2021,” said Montse Ferrer, Amnesty’s regional research director.
Sanctions Loopholes and Ongoing Arms Lifeline
Despite sanctions imposed by the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and others, the junta’s air force continues to operate quite freely. While limitations have been imposed on specific persons, financial institutions, and enterprises, the opaque global shipping and trade ecosystem still provides many opportunities for evasion.
The military also benefits from constant arms deliveries. Fighter planes, attack helicopters, bombs, and ammunition; primarily from long-time allies Russia and China, which appear unconcerned about the civilian toll.
Amnesty states that it was unable to accurately detect the jet fuel’s original suppliers or source countries. Nonetheless, the evasion techniques closely resemble those used to move sanctioned Iranian crude: frequent resales, re-flagging, and complex routes to hide origins.
Amnesty’s earlier 2022 exposé had already revealed corporations in Singapore and Thailand that were involved in previous supply chains. When sanctions were imposed on those ties, middlemen responded quickly, reselling fuel many times to disguise its origin and diverting shipments through storage terminals in Vietnam in 2023 and early 2024.
Demand for Immediate Fuel Ban and Supply-Chain Exit
Amnesty International is demanding immediate, concrete action, including a total ban on all exports of aviation fuel to Myanmar and the complete withdrawal of all businesses that continue to use these hidden fuel routes, whether they are aware of it or not.Until someone actually plugs these hidden fuel routes and stops the ghost ships, the bombs will keep falling and ordinary Myanmar people will keep paying the price.
The accusations have not generated a public response from the military authorities in Myanmar.
In conclusion, the junta’s continued reliance on hidden fuel routes and ghost ships for air strikes highlights a disturbing reality: the military will continue to be able to carry out catastrophic bombings as long as these secret pathways are operational. Closing these lifelines is an urgent moral duty to protect innocent civilians and put genuine pressure on the regime in Myanmar’s brutal and protracted civil war, not just a question of enforcement or diplomacy.
