Shipping loves a war. It’s a trite saying, dished out by shipping veterans as TV news correspondents don flak jackets and social media becomes awash with armchair generals.

Rates near war zones tend to spike at any sign of a skirmish, and the need to source cargoes from alternative, peaceful climes has a habit of extending the overall tonne-mile picture, soaking up tonnage and making owners richer.

That’s the argument regularly trotted out. However, with this Russian invasion there is one significant change to previous wars. This time, thanks to myriad brilliant new digital shipping platforms, we can see all too clearly which owners have decided to profit by sending their crews on dangerous sorties to pick up Russian cargoes, tempted by sky-high rates, where aframaxes, for instance, shot up above $200,000 a day.

I’ve been fortunate enough to be granted recently full access to Sea/, a platform developed by Clarksons. Opening it up, I get to see where every ship is in the world, and where they’re headed. The platform hosts a vast amount of other data too. There are many other similar platforms, giving journalists and regulators alike a level of transparency in these dark times of war like never before.

We’ve been all too happy to name and shame owners who have continued to do business with Russia in recent weeks, much to the horror of many CEOs, who previously had gone about their questionable businesses without any intrusion. Greek owners have been the most egregious over the past five weeks, but there has been a bunch of big names we’ve called out with my email inbox getting several spluttering, harrumphing missives from boardrooms across Europe.

Technology has made my job easier. I can, for instance, see the names of the 400-odd ships due to call in Russia in the next two weeks. With any luck tech transparency will also push the dodgiest ship operators to the sidelines. We will be watching.