UK seizes Russian ‘shadow fleet’ tanker – what that means

British forces have seized a Russian-linked oil tanker suspected of breaching sanctions while transiting the English Channel on Sunday, in what Prime Minister Keir Starmer described as a significant setback for Moscow’s efforts to fund its war in Ukraine .

“This successful operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fuelling [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war in Ukraine that we will not let them hide,” Starmer wrote in a post on X on Sunday.

Following the raid, officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested an Indian national on suspicion of sanctions offences, while the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed the seizure of the tanker Smyrtos.

The operation marks the first UK-led operation in which its forces have boarded and detained a vessel from Russia’s so-called “ shadow fleet ” – a network of hundreds of tankers used to transport Russian oil and circumvent Western sanctions imposed following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

According to the vessel-tracking website MarineTraffic, an oil tanker named Smyrtos, carrying 700,000 barrels of Russian oil and sailing under a Cameroonian flag, departed the Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga on June 5 and was bound for Port Said in Egypt.

The Smyrtos is recorded as being owned by a Hong Kong-registered company, Zhao Yao Shipping Ltd, which owns several other sanctioned tankers as well. Its management company is listed as being in Tamil Nadu state, India.

The MoD said Royal Marines commandos and NCA officers boarded the tanker in a predawn raid on Sunday, descending onto the vessel with ropes from Chinook helicopters, and supported by other military aircraft, a Royal Navy frigate and a minehunter.

The NCA said 24 Georgian and Indian crew members remained aboard the vessel, which is now anchored off the Dorset coast.