UK intercepts Russian shadow fleet oil tanker in English Channel
Prime minister hails ‘yet another blow to Russia’ as part of effort to clamp down on those fuelling Ukraine war
British armed forces intercepted an oil tanker in the English Channel in the early hours of Sunday morning in the first such action by the UK as part of its crackdown on Russia’s shadow fleet.
Sir Keir Starmer, the prime minister, said the successful operation had delivered “yet another blow to Russia” and was part of a concerted effort to clamp down on those fuelling Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Moscow has been running a shadow fleet of more than 700 oil tankers to evade international sanctions imposed on its exports of fossil fuels, a major plank of the Russian economy.
Royal Marine commandos and law enforcement officers from the National Crime Agency boarded the vessel, called the Smyrtos, in an operation that lasted for six hours. The operation was supported by aircraft from the Maritime Air Group, an RAF P-8 aircraft, as well as HMS Sutherland and HMS Ledbury.
The Ministry of Defence said the ship would be held while investigations continued. The vessel’s transponder is reporting that the ship is at anchor off Weymouth, on the English south coast. According to Kpler, the freight data company, the vessel is loaded with 700,000 barrels of crude from Ust Luga, one of Russia’s Baltic ports.
The so-called shadow fleet consists of ships that are owned through opaque structures and avoid using western services, particularly insurance. This makes it complex to take action against their owners if they breach rules.
Shipbrokers estimate that the size of the total global shadow fleet — which has also served Iran and Venezuela — is more than 1,500 tankers, having steadily grown as sanctions regimes on both Russia and Iran have tightened.
These vessels have historically taken advantage of the fact that states are not allowed to board or stop a ship that is properly flagged — meaning that another state has accepted responsibility for it.
A ship, however, can be boarded where there are reasonable grounds to suspect the vessel is without nationality — and may be subjected to coastal states’ legal processes. Allies of Ukraine have been pressurising flagging states not to offer cover to sanctioned ships.
The Smyrtos had been sailing under the flag of Cameroon, a state that has become one of the largest flaggers of shadow fleet vessels. This week, however, the country announced a further purge of its registry to get rid of ships. According to Lloyd’s List, the vessel is one of 36 expelled from the register this week.
Other Cameroonian-linked shadow tankers appear to be avoiding the channel. The Maini, the Lion I and the Sona — all engaged in shipping oil from the Russian Baltic ports to India — changed course on Sunday morning, seemingly to avoid entering the English Channel.
Stateless vessels may now seek to avoid the narrow waterway, transit of which would put them at risk of seizure by French and British forces. The operation on Sunday morning was conducted in close co-ordination with the French, the MoD said.
Two other Cameroon-flagged vessels, the Chios and Deliver, are currently passing the west of Ireland after having previously decided to take a long route from the Baltic, around the north of Scotland, to avoid entering the Channel.
Starmer announced in March that British armed forces were “now able to board sanctioned vessels that are passing through our waters”.
Richard Hermer, attorney-general, said: “This government made clear that we would pursue Russia’s shadow fleet under the full force of international law.”