British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Sunday that he had directed armed forces to intercept a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker attempting to pass through the English Channel.
In a post on X, Starmer said, “This successful operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fueling Putin’s war in Ukraine that we will not let them hide.”
“I want to thank those involved, including our Armed Forces and law enforcement officers who keep this country safe 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”
The vessel Smyrtos, sailing under a Cameroon flag, was boarded by Royal Marine Commandos and specially trained law enforcement officers from the National Crime Agency, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
Video of the raid released by the government showed British commandos rappelling onto the vessel, while NCA officials were seen searching through documentation.
The vessel will be held and monitored off the south coast as investigations continue, the statement said, adding that enforcement action in Britain’s territorial waters was carried out in accordance with domestic and international law.
Starmer, who is facing a potential leadership challenge and lost his defense secretary last week over a dispute about military spending, had in March given permission for the British military to board and detain Russian ships which Western governments say help Moscow export oil despite Western sanctions.
The prime minister’s change of stance did not immediately have any impact on the number of Russian vessels under sanctions passing through UK waters, according to a Reuters analysis which showed a similar number transited its waters before and after the announcement.
International responses to Smyrtos’ seizure
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on X that he was grateful to Britain for the tanker’s detention. Kyiv has been lobbying its allies to toughen enforcement against the shadow fleet, which it says funds Russia’s war machine.
“Europe urgently needs to take legislative steps to enable not only the detention of tankers and restrictions on oil shipments, but also the confiscation of the oil they carry. This will certainly help bring peace closer,” he said on X.
The Russian embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Previous interceptions of sanctioned Russian ships
Until Sunday, Britain’s involvement in efforts to stop the vessels had been limited to supporting French and U.S. operations.
A shadow fleet is a covert network of older vessels used to transport sanctioned or high-risk commodities from countries such as Russia and Iran. Ships in a shadow fleet often turn off their transponders or broadcast fals geo-location codes, and fly false and often obscure flags, so as to hide their true ownership, origin, location, and destination.
Earlier this month the French navy intercepted a sanctioned tanker linked with the Russian oil trade in the Atlantic Ocean, in a move that Russia said bordered on “international piracy.”
The tanker, which had sailed from Russia’s Arctic port of Murmansk, was suspected of flying under a false flag and was intercepted with support from Britain, Macron said. According to the vessel tracker MarineTraffic, the 252-meter-long tanker was sailing under the flag of Madagascar.
