France says it has seized an oil tanker in the Mediterranean suspected of being part of Russia’s sanction-busting “shadow fleet”.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the tanker, named the Grinch, was “subject to international sanctions and suspected of flying a false flag”.
The French navy, with the assistance of allies, boarded the vessel on Thursday morning between Spain and Morocco. French maritime authorities said that a search of the vessel had “confirmed the doubts as to the regularity of the flag”.
Russia’s embassy in Paris said it had not been informed of the seizure.
“France did not inform the Russian Embassy either about the tanker’s detention or about the composition of its crew,” the embassy said, according to Russian state news agency TASS.
It added that it was “determining if any Russian citizens are among the crew in order to provide assistance”.
Moscow’s so-called shadow fleet is a clandestine network of tankers used to evade Western sanctions on Russian oil exports by shipping the oil on aged tankers with obscure ownership or insurance.
Announcing the seizure on X, Macron said: “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.”
The French president added that an investigation had been launched and the vessel had been “diverted”.
The Grinch was travelling from the Arctic port of Murmansk in northern Russia when it was intercepted, French authorities said. The vessel had been flying a Comoros flag, according to ship tracking websites marinetraffic and vesselfinder.
The navies of other countries including the UK assisted the operation.
Defence Secretary John Healy said Britain had provided “tracking and monitoring” support, with HMS Dagger monitoring the tanker through the Straits of Gibraltar.
He added: “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.”
The UK has imposed sanctions on 544 Russian shadow fleet vessels.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the action, saying it was “exactly the kind of resolve needed to ensure that Russian oil no longer finances Russia’s war”.
“Vessels must be apprehended. And wouldn’t it be fair to confiscate and sell the oil carried by these tankers?” he said on X.
Speaking at Davos earlier on Thursday, Zelensky exhorted Europe to do more to ensure its own security, saying: “Europe loves to discuss the future but avoids taking action”.
Many Western countries imposed sanctions on Russian energy following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Earlier in January, British armed forces supported a US operation to seize a Russian-flagged tanker in the Atlantic that US officials said had broken sanctions by carrying oil for Venezuela and Russia.
Moscow denounced the move, saying no state had the right to use force against vessels properly registered in other states’ jurisdictions.
Last October, France seized another sanctioned tanker, the Boracay, off its west coast before releasing it a few days later.
Shadow fleets are becoming increasingly common, with Venezuela, Iran and Russia all accused of using them to avoid sanctions on oil.
Financial intelligence firm S&P Global estimates that one in five oil tankers worldwide are used to smuggle oil from sanctioned countries.
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