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The French navy has seized a Russian oil tanker in the Mediterranean, as European powers step up efforts to disrupt the oil sales funding Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the vessel had been intercepted and diverted in the Mediterranean with co-operation from allies including the British navy.
The tanker was “subject to international sanctions and suspected of flying a false flag”, he wrote on X.
“We are determined to uphold international law and to ensure the effective enforcement of sanctions. The activities of the ‘shadow fleet’ contribute to financing the war of aggression against Ukraine,” Macron added.
UK defence secretary John Healey said Britain provided “tracking and monitoring” in support of the French operation.
“Alongside our allies, we are stepping up our response to shadow vessels — to choke off the funds that fuel Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine,” he added.
European countries are starting to take tougher action against the so-called shadow fleet of vessels transporting western-sanctioned crude oil, following the US’s seizures of tankers off the coast of Venezuela.
However, in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Europe to step up its efforts even further to stop the shadow fleet, suggesting the Russian oil be confiscated and “sold for Europe’s benefit”.
The US has seized seven oil tankers since December 10, according to maritime intelligence group Windward.
This month, with the support of the UK, it boarded the Russian-flagged Marinera tanker, previously known as the Bella 1, after pursuing it for several weeks across the Atlantic.
“Trump has given European navies this template that you can go after the shadow fleet,” said Michelle Wiese Bockmann, senior maritime intelligence analyst at Windward.
The French navy said the tanker seized on Thursday, named Grinch, was sailing from the port of Mourmansk in Russia. The vessel was falsely flying the flag of Comoros, according to the International Maritime Organization. It was carrying 750,000 barrels of crude oil, Windward said.
The operation is the second time France has intercepted an oil tanker suspected of smuggling Russian fossil fuels. In October, the French navy boarded a vessel that had navigated near Denmark during a series of drone incursions, arguing that it too was part of the shadow fleet.
Germany last week blocked a falsely flagged tanker that was attempting to enter the Baltic Sea.
Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, states can board falsely flagged vessels travelling in international waters, but European countries have until this year been reluctant to do so.
“This is the first sign that the long-anticipated campaign against the dark fleet has commenced,” said Wiese Bockmann.
Additional reporting by Christopher Miller in Kyiv and David Sheppard in London
