British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Sunday that he had directed armed forces to intercept a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker attempting to pass through the English Channel.
In a post on X, Starmer said, “This successful operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fueling Putin’s war in Ukraine that we will not let them hide.”
“I want to thank those involved, including our Armed Forces and law enforcement officers who keep this country safe 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”
In the early hours of this morning, I directed our Armed Forces to intercept a shadow fleet oil tanker attempting to pass through the English Channel.
This successful operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fueling Putin’s war in Ukraine that we will not…
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) June 14, 2026
The vessel SMYRTOS was boarded by Royal Marine Commandos and specially trained law enforcement officers from the National Crime Agency, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
The vessel will be held and monitored off the south coast as investigations continue, the statement said, adding that enforcement action in Britain’s territorial waters was carried out in accordance with domestic and international law.
A shadow fleet is a covert network of older vessels used to transport sanctioned or high-risk commodities from countries such as Russia and Iran. Ships in a shadow fleet often turn off their transponders or broadcast fals geo-location codes, and fly false and often obscure flags, so as to hide their true ownership, origin, location, and destination.
Earlier this month the French navy intercepted a sanctioned tanker linked with the Russian oil trade in the Atlantic Ocean, in a move that Russia said bordered on “international piracy.”
The tanker, which had sailed from Russia’s Arctic port of Murmansk, was suspected of flying under a false flag and was intercepted with support from Britain, Macron said. According to the vessel tracker MarineTraffic, the 252-meter-long tanker was sailing under the flag of Madagascar.
This is a developing story.
