Britain’s armed forces have for the first time intercepted and seized control of a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker sailing in the English Channel, the British Defense Ministry said on Sunday.
Royal Marine Commandos and specially trained law enforcement officers boarded the vessel early Sunday in a military operation that lasted six hours and that was supported by British military ships and aircraft, the ministry said in a statement.
The intercepted tanker, the Smyrtos, will be held and monitored off the southern coast of England, the ministry added.
The interception of the Smyrtos was the first time that British forces had acted alone to stop a ship in the shadow fleet and the first such operation in the English Channel, the Defense Ministry said.
This year, the British military assisted the United States in seizing an oil tanker, the Marinera, in the waters between Iceland and Scotland. American officials said the ship had violated sanctions by carrying oil for Venezuela, Russia and Iran.
After that operation, the British government had said it was exploring how British forces could take similar action against sanctioned vessels traveling through its waters. In March, Mr. Starmer decided British armed forces and law enforcement officers could board shadow fleet vessels in accordance with international law, the Defense Ministry said.
This month, President Emmanuel Macron of France said his country had intercepted an oil tanker thought to be part of the Russian shadow fleet. That vessel, the Tagor, was detained with British support in the Atlantic Ocean, around 400 nautical miles west of Brittany. It was the fourth suspected shadow fleet vessel that France has boarded since September 2025, according to the French authorities.
In a statement issued this year, the Russian Foreign Ministry claimed that European countries had come up “with the notion of a ‘shadow fleet,’ which does not exist in international maritime law and is being used as a cover for acts of piracy on maritime routes.”