The European Union on Thursday imposed sanctions on 41 more ships in Russia's shadow fleet, taking the total of designated vessels to almost 600.

The ships are now banned from entering EU ports and can no longer receive a broad range of services related to maritime transport, the EU Council said.

The EU has imposed 19 packages of sanctions against Russia so far, but Moscow has managed to adapt to most measures and is still selling millions of barrels of oil to India and China, albeit at discounts to global prices.

Much of this is shipped using a so-called shadow fleet of vessels operating outside of the Western maritime industry.

The EU on Monday already adopted sanctions targeting Russia oil traders Murtaza Lakhani and Etibar Eyyub for enabling Moscow to circumvent Western sanctions on crude exports that help to fund Russia's war in Ukraine.