French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Wednesday that an oil tanker immobilized off the French Atlantic coast had committed “very serious wrongdoings.” He linked the vessel to Russia’s shadow fleet, which is reportedly evading Western sanctions imposed over Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The tanker, which was sailing last week near the coast of Denmark, has been cited by European naval experts as possibly involved in drone flights over the country. French naval forces forcibly boarded the ship a few days ago at the request of prosecutors who suspected illegal activities, a military official confirmed on Wednesday.
The prosecutor’s office in the western French city of Brest opened a judicial investigation into the crew’s “refusal to cooperate” and “failure to justify the nationality of the vessel.” Meanwhile, the ship has been ordered to remain in place pending further investigation, according to the official.
On Wednesday, French naval forces boarded the ship again to provide food and fuel to the crew aboard. The official who shared this information was not authorized to be publicly named due to the ongoing nature of the investigation.
According to the Marine Traffic monitoring website, the ship departed the Russian oil terminal in Primorsk near Saint Petersburg on September 20. It sailed off the coast of Denmark before staying off the French western port of Saint-Nazaire since Sunday.
Macron suggested the ship was stopped due to French authorities’ “intervention.” Speaking on the sidelines of a European Union leaders’ summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, he stated:
“I think it’s a good thing that this work has been done and that we’ve been able to stop it. There were some very serious wrongdoings made by this crew, which is why there are legal proceedings in the case.”
He declined to provide further details.
The Russian Embassy in Paris did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.
When asked about the ship’s connection to drone incidents in Denmark and reports of two detainees aboard, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen refrained from commenting on specifics. However, she acknowledged the broader issue:
“I can say in more general terms that we are facing a lot of problems with the shadow fleet. And that has been the case, especially in the Baltic Sea for quite a long time. And we are working very closely together to battle this situation.”
Highlighting the ongoing threat, on Christmas Day 2024, a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker known as the Eagle S triggered a nationwide alarm in Finland. The tanker was suspected of deliberately severing a critical undersea electric cable located 50 miles off the coast.
A seven-month investigation by “60 Minutes” revealed that this incident was not isolated. It uncovered that a major Russian oil company was hiding ownership of the tanker behind layers of shell companies to evade Western sanctions.
In response, NATO launched “Baltic Sentry,” a mission deploying ships and planes to monitor the shadow fleet and protect vital seabed infrastructure. According to British Admiral Keith Blount, NATO’s deputy supreme allied commander Europe, no cable-cutting incidents have occurred since.
Macron emphasized that the current incident underscores “the existence and the reality of a phenomenon that we have been describing and denouncing for a long time,” referring to the “notorious shadow fleet.” This fleet represents tens of billions of euros for Russia’s budget and is estimated to finance around 40% of Russia’s war effort.
The tanker, known as “Pushpa” or “Boracay” — names it has used interchangeably — sailed under the flag of Benin and appears on the European Union’s list of ships targeted by sanctions against Russia.
The shadow fleet consists mainly of aging tankers purchased secondhand, often by opaque entities registered in countries that do not impose sanctions. These ships operate under flags from non-sanctioning nations and play a crucial role in helping Russia’s oil exporters bypass the price caps imposed by Ukraine’s allies.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/macron-russia-shadow-fleet-oil-tanker-off-france/