France on Thursday announced that its forces seized another tanker linked to Russia, which came as Ukrainian drones targeted Russian oil infrastructure, as Russia’s oil industry continues to face pressure from both Ukraine and its Western backers.
French President Emmanuel Macron said in a post on X that French forces boarded the tanker Deliver while it was in the Mediterranean Sea off Sicily. Ship-tracking data show that the vessel, flying the Cameroonian flag, was recently in the Russian Baltic Sea port of Primorsk.
Macron said the ship was part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet,” a term Western leaders use to describe vessels that ship Russian oil despite US and European sanctions. Russia rejects the characterization, saying the oil sanctions are a unilateral policy not approved by the UN Security Council and not part of international law.
In response to the seizure, Russia’s embassy in Paris denounced the move as “piracy” and said it was “illegal” under international law for French forces to seize the ship.
According to Reuters, Nine Russia-linked tankers have now been seized in Europe this year, including four by France, one by the UK in the English Channel, and three that were stopped and inspected as part of a European naval mission in the Mediterranean.
The increase in the seizures came with an escalation of Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia targeting oil facilities, including attacks on Thursday that sparked a fire at the Poltavaskaya oil depot in Russia’s southern Krasnodar Region. Ukraine’s drone attacks deep inside Russia, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calls “long-range sanctions,” are known to be supported by US and NATO intelligence, meaning the operations always risk a potential escalation between Russia and the Western military alliance.
