Overview
- British Royal Marine Commandos and specially trained National Crime Agency officers boarded the sanctioned tanker SMYRTOS in the English Channel on Sunday in a six-hour operation supported by RAF aircraft and the warships HMS Sutherland and HMS Ledbury.
- The SMYRTOS was provisionally anchored off the south coast near Weymouth/Portland and will be monitored for environmental and safety risks while investigators examine paperwork, ownership and whether the ship breached sanctions.
- The Ministry of Defence said the boarding was carried out under international maritime law and domestic sanctions powers and was conducted in close coordination with French authorities.
- UK ministers framed the action as part of a wider campaign against the so-called shadow fleet that uses opaque ownership, flags of convenience and ship-to-ship transfers to move sanctioned Russian oil and raise funds for the war in Ukraine.
- The UK has now sanctioned nearly 600 shadow-fleet vessels and says those measures have helped cut Russian oil revenues, but officials warn seizures create costs, crew-handling and environmental challenges and risk diplomatic pushback from Moscow.