On Sunday, British Royal Marines boarded and seized an oil tanker in the English Channel that the UK says is part of Russia’s “shadow fleet,” a term Western countries use to describe vessels that ship Russian oil despite US and European sanctions.
According to ship-tracking data, the tanker Smyrtos was sailing under the Cameroonian flag, had departed the Russian Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga, and was bound for Port Said, Egypt, before being intercepted by British forces.
The British Ministry of Defense said the operation to seize the tanker lasted six hours and that the ship would “provisionally move to an anchorage off the South Coast of England and will be monitored for any environmental or safety concerns.”
Several other tankers allegedly part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” have been seized by France and other European countries over the past year, but Sunday’s incident marks the first time a ship was intercepted in the English Channel.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had been threatening for some time to take action against Russian-linked tankers and said on Sunday that the seizure of the Smyrtos “delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fueling Putin’s war in Ukraine that we will not let them hide.”
The incident comes as the US has dramatically stepped up its attacks and seizures of oil tankers, starting last year off the coast of Venezuela, and extending seizures deep into the Atlantic Ocean and in the Indian Ocean. In its enforcement of the blockade on Iranian ports, the US has bombed at least nine commercial ships and killed at least three Indian mariners in one of the attacks.
