{"id":637993,"date":"2026-06-14T09:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T09:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/637993\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T09:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T09:05:14","slug":"united-kingdom-starmer-british-army-stops-shadow-fleet-tanker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/637993\/","title":{"rendered":"United Kingdom: Starmer: British Army stops Shadow Fleet tanker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"m-image-and-caption__image lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2e4c1006-2134-4d04-b71b-afb3063da112.jpeg\"  data- alt=\"British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in front of 10 Downing Street. Photo: Kin Cheung\/AP\/dpa\/File photo\"\/><\/p>\n<p>      British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in front of 10 Downing Street. Photo: Kin Cheung\/AP\/dpa\/File photo<\/p>\n<p>        Keystone\n      <\/p>\n<p class=\"a-paragraph a-paragraph--lead\" data-t-name=\"Paragraph\">According to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the British military has stopped an oil tanker belonging to the so-called Russian shadow fleet that was attempting to pass through the English Channel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"a-paragraph\" data-t-name=\"Paragraph\">He instructed the armed forces early this morning to intercept the ship, the head of government announced on the X platform. The successful operation dealt another blow to Russia and serves as a reminder to those fueling Putin\u2019s war in Ukraine that they cannot hide.<\/p>\n<p class=\"a-paragraph\" data-t-name=\"Paragraph\">According to the British Ministry of Defense, the ship is the nearly 244-meter-long oil tanker \u201cSmyrtos,\u201d which, according to the website Marinetraffic.com, flies the Cameroonian flag and is coming from a Russian port.<\/p>\n<p>Six-hour operation against shadow fleet vessel<\/p>\n<p class=\"a-paragraph\" data-t-name=\"Paragraph\">Navy forces and specially trained officers from the National Criminal Police boarded the ship, according to a statement from the British Ministry. The military operation lasted six hours. \u201cThe ship is now being held and monitored off the south coast while the investigation continues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"a-paragraph\" data-t-name=\"Paragraph\">According to the statement, the Prime Minister had approved in March that British armed forces and law enforcement agencies may board ships of the shadow fleet. The operation was carried out in close coordination with France. The ship is now being inspected for environmental and safety violations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"a-paragraph\" data-t-name=\"Paragraph\">\u201cRussia is financing its conflict in Ukraine with its shadow fleet, and our interception is a blow against Putin\u2019s illegal war,\u201d said Defense Minister Dan Jarvis, according to the statement.<\/p>\n<p>Ships are being stopped and inspected with increasing frequency<\/p>\n<p class=\"a-paragraph\" data-t-name=\"Paragraph\">Russia is attempting to circumvent the sanctions imposed by Western allies due to Russia\u2019s war of aggression against Ukraine using ships from the so-called shadow fleet. According to British sources, there are more than 700 such ships. The ships are frequently stopped and inspected. Two weeks ago, France inspected an oil tanker coming from Russia in the Atlantic\u2014according to Paris, with support from the UK. At the time, the Kremlin criticized such actions as bordering on \u201cinternational piracy.\u201d Russia has been waging war against Ukraine for more than four years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in front of 10 Downing Street. Photo: Kin Cheung\/AP\/dpa\/File photo Keystone According to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-637993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}