French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the French navy, assisted by the United Kingdom, intercepted an oil tanker suspected of being part of a 'shadow fleet' aimed at circumventing sanctions on Russia. The operation took place on Sunday in the Atlantic Ocean, according to Macron's post on the social platform X.
"It is unacceptable for ships to bypass international sanctions, violate maritime law, and finance the war Russia has waged against Ukraine for more than four years," Macron wrote, accompanying a video showing a person rappelling from a helicopter onto the vessel.
According to French authorities, the tanker, named Tagor, had departed from Murmansk in northwestern Russia. The vessel was flying a fraudulent Cameroonian flag and was headed to Limbe, a coastal city in western Cameroon. Guillaume Le Rasle, spokesperson for the Atlantic Maritime Prefecture, said the Tagor is listed on both European Union and U.S. sanctions lists.
"It is a ship that was known and monitored," Le Rasle told AFP, adding that the decision to divert the vessel was made late Sunday with the aim of "verifying the validity of the flag." When intercepted, the Tagor was "almost empty" and had frequently changed flags. According to data from the ship-tracking platform MarineTraffic, the vessel last transmitted its signal a week earlier while sailing off the coast of Norway under the flag of Madagascar.
The Atlantic Maritime Prefecture said the interception occurred more than 400 nautical miles (740 km) west of Brittany.
Since September, France has inspected three other ships but released them after their owners paid fines. In September, the French navy inspected the Benin-flagged tanker Boracay; its Chinese captain was tried in absentia, and a French court ordered his detention and sentenced him to one year in prison in March. In January, French forces seized the Russian tanker Grinch; in March, the Mozambique-flagged Deyna from Murmansk was detained in Marseille. In April, France announced plans to double fines for vessels flying no flag or failing to comply with orders.
Oil revenues are a pillar of Russia's economy, helping to offset the costs of the war that has lasted more than four years in Ukraine. Authorities believe Russia uses hundreds of ships to evade sanctions. France and other nations have pledged to tighten the noose on this 'shadow fleet.' Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned the detention of Russia-linked ships as 'piracy.'
