The UK Ministry of Defense (MOD) issued a press release on Sunday Announcing that Royal Marine Commandos had captured a sanctioned Russian tanker in the Channel, it was described as “the latest blow to Russia’s war economy”.
The ship, named SMYRTOS and flying under the Cameroonian flag, is believed to be part of Russia’s so-called shadow fleet – a network of ships that secretly transport sanctioned Russian fuel, delivering it to buyers willing to violate international sanctions and fund Vladimir Putin’s aggressive war in Ukraine.
They are also suspected of damaging undersea cables in the Baltic Sea as part of Russia’s “hybrid war” against NATO-member-state neighbors.
Britain’s new defense secretary says intervention is ‘blow to Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine’
“In the first operation of its kind led by the UK, the ship SMYRTOS was boarded by Royal Marine Commandos and specially trained law enforcement officers from the National Crime Agency, despite Russia’s best efforts to evade sanctions and fuel its barbaric war with Ukraine,” the MoD press statement said.
“Russia relies on its shadow fleet to detect its conflict in Ukraine and our intervention deals a blow to Putin’s illegal war,” Britain’s Defense Secretary Dan Jarvis was quoted as saying.
The Defense Ministry also posted video footage on its X account, in which it said the six-hour early morning operation was carried out in “close coordination with the French”.
“This morning, UK forces boarded a Russian tanker in the English Channel that was secretly helping to finance Putin’s war in Ukraine,” the text said alongside footage showing commandos boarding a ship from a helicopter. The Defense Ministry said that multiple aircraft and ships were involved in the intervention.
Britain late to join the shadow fleet seizure game
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the operation as “another blow to Russia” and said, “It reminds Putin’s warmongers in Ukraine that they cannot hide.”
Britain has sanctioned hundreds of ships belonging to Russia’s shadow fleet since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but until March no law was passed that would allow British forces to board ships and seize them.
Defense Secretary Jarvis said the sanctions reduced Russia’s “ability to threaten the security of Europe and beyond.”
Prime Minister Starmer has come under criticism in recent months, not least over allegations that his government is underfunding UK security; An issue that led to the resignation of Jarvis’s predecessor, John Healey, on Thursday.
Ukraine grateful for Britain’s action, calls on EU to step up intervention
“SMYRTOS will be temporarily towed to an anchorage off the south coast of England and monitored for any environmental or safety concerns,” Sunday’s MoD statement said. It added that the “enforcement action” was “taken in accordance with domestic and international law.”
Belgium, Finland and France have all seized shadow fleet vessels that evade sanctions.
Until now, the UK had played only a supporting role in the American and French interventions. It was initiated and led for the first time on Sunday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed Britain’s Sunday morning operation and again called on allies to be more vigilant.
“Europe needs to take immediate legislative steps not only to detain tankers and ban oil shipments, but also to seize the oil they carry,” he wrote on X.
“This,” he added, “will certainly help bring peace closer.”
“Russia’s shadow fleet is an instrument of war,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga wrote on X, adding that “the stoppage of every such ship means less money for Russia’s war machine” and Moscow’s “drone strikes against Ukrainian cities.”
Edited by: Jennifer Cimino Gonzalez