The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Sunday issued a press release announcing that Royal Marine Commandos had captured a sanctioned Russian tanker in the Channel in what it called “the latest blow to Russia’s war economy.”
The vessel, named SMYRTOS and flying under Cameroonian flag, is thought to be part Russia’s so-called shadow fleet — a network of ships that clandestinely transport sanctioned Russian fuel, delivering it to buyers willing to flout international sanctions and fund Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine.
They are also suspected of damaging undersea cables in the Baltic Sea as part of Russia’s “hybrid war” against NATO-member-state neighbors.
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“In the first UK-led operation of its kind, the vessel SMYRTOS was boarded by Royal Marine Commandos and specially trained law enforcement officers from the National Crime Agency, despite Russia’s best efforts to evade sanctions and continue fueling its barbaric war with Ukraine,” read the MoD press statement.
“Russia relies on its shadow fleet to fund their conflict in Ukraine and our interdiction delivers a blow to Putin’s illegal war,” UK Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis was quoted as saying.
The MoD also posted video footage on its X account of what it said was a six-hour, early morning operation carried out in “close coordination with the French.”
“This morning, UK forces boarded a Russian tanker in the English Channel that was secretly helping to bankroll Putin’s war in Ukraine,” read text accompanying footage showing commandos appearing to rappel onto a ship from helicopters. The MoD said several aircraft and ships were involved in the interdiction.
UK late to join shadow fleet confiscation game
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the operation as “yet another blow to Russia,” saying it, “reminds those fueling Putin’s war in Ukraine that they cannot hide.”
The UK has sanctioned hundreds of ships tied to Russia’s shadow fleet since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but it was not until March that legislation was passed allowing UK forces to board and seize them.
Defence Secretary Jarvis said the interdiction reduced Russia’s “capacity to threaten security across Europe and beyond.”
Prime Minister Starmer has come under fire in recent months, not least over accusations that his government is underfunding the UK’s defenses; an issue that led to the resignation of Jarvis’ predecessor, John Healey, on Thursday.
Ukraine grateful for UK action, calls on EU to step up interdictions
“The SMYRTOS will be provisionally moved to an anchorage off the South Coast of England and will be monitored for any environmental or safety concerns,” Sunday’s MoD statement read, adding that “enforcement action” had been “carried out in accordance with domestic and international law.”
Belgium, Finland and France have all impounded sanctions-evading shadow fleet ships.
Until now, the UK played only a supporting role in US and French interdictions. Sunday’s was the first that it initiated and led.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the UK’s Sunday morning operation and again called on allies to be more vigilant.
“Europe urgently needs to take legislative steps to enable not only the detention of tankers and restrictions on oil shipments,” he wrote on X, “but also the confiscation of the oil they carry.”
“This,” he continued, “will certainly help bring peace closer.”
“Russia’s shadow fleet is a tool of war,” wrote Ukraine Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga on X, “Every such vessel stopped means less money for Russia’s war machine” and Moscow’s “drone attacks against Ukrainian cities.”
Edited by: Jenipher Camino Gonzalez
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