The UK government has expanded its list of sanctioned entities with 30 new vessels and two Russian insurers targeted in its largest shadow fleet-focused sanctions package to date.

The multi-billion-dollar London court action between some of the world’s biggest aircraft lessors and their insurers over jets stranded in Russia has been forced to adjourn, a move which will delay the industry’s search for much-needed clarity on Russia-Ukraine exposures, The Insurer can reveal.

Conflict-affected areas now represent 4.6 percent of the entire global landmass – a 65 percent increase since 2021, according to Verisk Maplecroft.

Aviation lessor AerCap has said it would be “impossible” for insurers to deny liability in its multi-billion-dollar claim for aircraft stranded in Russia, telling London’s High Court that it was “inconceivable” that its losses would not be covered under either its all-risk or war coverages.

Ongoing Russia-Ukraine-related legal action continues to cast a shadow over the build-up to what is otherwise expected to be a stable aviation reinsurance renewal at 1 January.

Aviation war insurers have told London’s High Court that losses suffered by aircraft lessors over planes stranded in Russia were caused by the “commercial decisions” of domestic airlines and not a politically motivated act of war, arguing that liability therefore falls on all-risk policies.

Aviation insurers have told the High Court that losses suffered by global leasing firms after their aircraft became stranded in Russia are the direct result of orders issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin in retaliation for Western sanctions following the war in Ukraine.

2 October (Reuters) by Kirstin Ridley and Sam Tobin – Aircraft lessor Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) has secured a settlement with insurer Axa over jets retained in Russia since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, raising the prospect of further deals as a London High Court "mega trial" kicked off.

Later today London’s commercial court will begin hearing a multi-billion-dollar legal battle between some of the world’s largest aviation lessors and their insurers over hundreds of aircraft stranded in Russia, a “mega-trial” set to have far-reaching consequences for the aviation (re)insurance market.

Brokers Aon and Marsh McLennan have made a united call for the (re)insurance sector to remove blanket exclusions to support Ukraine’s recovery from the conflict with Russia.

Aircraft lessor BOC Aviation last year received a $258mn insurance payment concerning 11 jets detained in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.

AerCap Holdings recovered $23mn relating to an aircraft retrieved from Ukraine in the first half of 2024 with the Irish aviation lessor doubling down on its continuing attempts to recover ~$4bn from its insurers over assets seized following Russia’s invasion.

John Minor, Aon’s director of crisis management, said the broker’s new $350mn war risk program, underwritten by the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), has the potential to be replicated in other geopolitically challenged regions.

An aircraft owner has sued its insurers for $6.5mn to cover the loss of a plane trapped and damaged at a Ukrainian airport after the country's invasion by Russia, becoming the latest in a string of cases of lessors looking for reimbursement over detained aircraft.

The UK has imposed wide-ranging sanctions on Russian insurer Ingosstrakh as part of a push to clamp down on cover provided to the shadow fleet and to restrict Moscow’s energy revenues.