Overview
- British Royal Marines and specially trained National Crime Agency officers boarded and seized the tanker SMYRTOS in a six-hour dawn operation on Sunday, using helicopters and ships including HMS Sutherland and HMS Ledbury.
- The vessel is being moved to an anchorage off England and remains under surveillance while investigators and law enforcement assess evidence of sanction evasion.
- UK officials said the operation was carried out in close coordination with France as part of a wider effort to disrupt a so-called Russian 'ghost fleet' that skirts embargoes through opaque ownership and flag changes.
- Ukraine's president praised the interception as a move that will deprive Moscow of revenue for the war in Ukraine, and London has already sanctioned hundreds of vessels it suspects belong to the ghost fleet.
- The UK links these interdictions to broader maritime security concerns, including repeated damage to undersea cables in the Baltic, and ministers are preparing new legal measures to protect submarine infrastructure and enable further boardings and seizures.