{"id":638783,"date":"2026-06-14T20:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T20:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/638783\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T20:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T20:25:09","slug":"uk-intercepts-russian-shadow-fleet-oil-tanker-in-english-channel-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/638783\/","title":{"rendered":"UK intercepts Russian shadow fleet oil tanker in English Channel \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

British<\/a> armed forces have \u200cintercepted a Russian<\/a> shadow fleet oil<\/a> \u200btanker attempting to pass through the English Channel.<\/p>\n

The vessel Smyrtos was boarded by \u200bRoyal Marine commandos and specially trained law-enforcement \u2060officers on Sunday, \u200cBritain\u2019s \u200cministry \u200bof defence said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The vessel will \u2060be \u200bheld and monitored \u200boff the south coast of England as investigations \u200ccontinue, the statement said, \u200badding that enforcement action in Britain\u2019s \u2060territorial waters \u2060was \u200bcarried out in accordance with domestic and international law.<\/p>\n

British prime minister Keir Starmer<\/a> said he had directed the interception.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis successful operation delivers yet \u200canother blow to Russia \u2060and reminds those fuelling Putin\u2019s war in Ukraine that \u200cwe will not let them hide,\u201d Starmer \u200bsaid in a post \u200bon X.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe oil tanker was operating as part of Russia’s shadow fleet. Photograph: Finnbarr Webster\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Starmer, who is facing a potential leadership challenge and lost his defence secretary last week over a dispute about military spending, had in March given permission for the British military to board and detain Russian ships that western governments say help Moscow export oil despite sanctions.<\/p>\n

The UK prime \u200cminister\u2019s change of \u2060stance did not immediately have any impact on the number of Russian vessels under sanctions passing through UK waters, according to a \u200cReuters analysis which showed a similar number transited its waters before and after the announcement.<\/p>\n

Until \u200bSunday, Britain\u2019s involvement in efforts to stop the vessels \u200bhad been limited to supporting French and US operations.<\/p>\n

In footage released by the UK government, personnel are shown boarding the vessel in the dark by fast-roping from a CH-47 Chinook helicopter.<\/p>\n

Further video clips show personnel armed with KS-1 rifles conducting searches of cabins aboard the vessel, while officers from the NCA inspect documentation and paperwork.<\/p>\n

According to the MarineTraffic website, Smyrtos sails under the Cameroon flag and left Ust-Luga, Russia, on June 5th, with Port Said, Egypt, listed as its destination.<\/p>\n

The website also says that the vessel is currently off the coast of Weymouth, Dorset.<\/p>\n

Starmer said in a statement: \u201cThis operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fuelling [Vladimir] Putin\u2019s war in Ukraine that they cannot hide.<\/p>\n

Starmer said in March that the UK would join northern European allies in intercepting Russia\u2019s shadow fleet, in an attempt to \u201cgo after\u201d the sanction-breaking ships \u201ceven harder\u201d.<\/p>\n

Moscow\u2019s shadow fleet is reported to be made up of more than 1,000 ageing tankers that illicitly ship oil and other goods out of Russia by flying the flags of other countries, with the aim of evading sanctions imposed by the West since the invasion of Ukraine began.<\/p>\n

Closing off British waters to the shadow fleet is aimed at forcing the Russian vessels into taking longer, more costly sea routes, or risk being intercepted by the UK.<\/p>\n

British forces have already been involved in tracking shadow fleet vessels for several years, and have supported operations by other countries to seize the ships.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy<\/a> thanked the UK for \u201csuch principled resolve\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian president wrote on X: \u201cI am grateful to the UK for taking this important step against Russia\u2019s oil fleet \u2013 a shadow fleet tanker has been detained off the UK\u2019s southern coast.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was Russia\u2019s hubris, fuelled by high oil and gas revenues, that paved the way for this war, and every decision by partners that deprives Russia of money also limits the war itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thank @Keir_Starmer and all Britons for such principled resolve. And Europe 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. This will certainly help bring peace closer. \u2013 Reuters\/PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British armed forces have \u200cintercepted a Russian shadow fleet oil \u200btanker attempting to pass through the English Channel.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,420,50,2987,154,56,54,55,215598],"class_list":["post-638783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-keir-starmer","tag-news","tag-oil","tag-russia","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-volodymyr-zelenskiy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638783","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=638783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}