{"id":638299,"date":"2026-06-14T13:37:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T13:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/638299\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T13:37:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T13:37:29","slug":"uk-intercepts-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker-for-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/638299\/","title":{"rendered":"UK intercepts Russian \u2018shadow fleet\u2019 tanker for first time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/p>\n

British forces have intercepted a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker in the English Channel for the first time.
\n The Cameroon-flagged Smyrtos was sanctioned last year for shipping Russian oil in defiance of international sanctions.
\n Ukraine’s president applauded the action and called for Europe to confiscate oil from detained tankers.<\/p>\n

\n AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.<\/p>\n

\n The UK military has intercepted an oil tanker linked to Russia\u2019s shadow fleet in the English Channel, according to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in the first such operation by British forces.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIn the early hours of this morning, I directed our Armed Forces to intercept a shadow fleet oil tanker attempting to pass through the English Channel,\u201d Starmer said in a post on X.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis successful operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fueling Putin\u2019s war in Ukraine that we will not let them hide.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n France has previously intercepted several vessels linked to Russia\u2019s shadow fleet, which carries Russian oil in defiance of international sanctions.\n <\/p>\n

\n The tanker seized Sunday is the Cameroon-flagged Smyrtos, which was sanctioned last year by the UK for its involvement in shipping Russian oil.\n <\/p>\n

\"UK<\/p>\n

\"Prime<\/p>\n

\n Commandos and the UK\u2019s National Crime Agency were involved in boarding the ship in the English Channel.\n <\/p>\n

\n Ship tracking data shows that the Smyrtos was in the Russian port of Luga Bay on June 5 and left the Baltic six days later. Its destination was given as Port Said in Egypt.\n <\/p>\n

\n Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky applauded the UK action and said that \u201cEurope urgently needs to take legislative steps to enable not only the detention of tankers and restrictions on oil shipments, but also the confiscation of the oil they carry.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n A Kremlin envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, said that Starmer was \u201cusing the detention of a tanker as a distraction from the (UK\u2019s) migrant crisis.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The interception of the Smyrtos occurred just days after the PM appointed a new Defense Secretary, Dan Jarvis, following the resignation of John Healey from Starmer\u2019s fragile government in a dispute over military budgets.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cRussia relies on its shadow fleet to fund their conflict in Ukraine and our interdiction delivers a blow to Putin\u2019s illegal war,\u201d Jarvis said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary British forces have intercepted a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker in the English Channel for the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-638299","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\/638299","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=638299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}