🔗 Share this article

French military personnel have seized an oil tanker thought to be part of the Russian shadow fleet, used to evade restrictions enacted due to the war in the region.

The ship left Russian territory last month and was off the coast of the Scandinavian nation when unidentified drones forced the short-term shutdown of several airports recently. It has been anchored near western France for a short period.

Official Statements

Head of State the French leader stated the crew had committed grave violations at an European Union leaders' summit in Copenhagen on midweek but offered no details.

Kremlin representative Dmitry Peskov said Russia had no knowledge of the ship.

A major news agency cited a source as indicating France's armed forces had taken control of the vessel on the weekend.

Investigation Particulars

Legal authorities in Brest have initiated an investigation on multiple charges: disobeying an order to stop and failing to explain the origin of the ship's flag.

The French president declined to be pressed on the issue of whether the ship may have been utilized as a base for the drone flights that triggered such disruption in the Scandinavian country recently.

Background on Restrictions

Many European and American countries enforced economic measures on Russian energy by restricting purchases and capping the cost of its crude following Russia's comprehensive invasion of the neighboring country in 2022.

To evade these sanctions, the Russian government assembled what has been referred to as a shadow fleet of vessels whose proprietorship and movements could be concealed.

Russia is thought to have a fleet of several hundred ships which are listed in other countries and are employed to export its oil. The French leader indicated that Russia's covert armada contained from 600 and 1,000 ships.

Ship Information

The Boracay, also known as Pushpa and a third name, is a registered in Benin vessel but has been designated under British and European restrictions on Russia.

It was detained by Baltic authorities earlier this year for operating without a legitimate country flag.

It had departed the Russian harbor of Primorsk near Saint Petersburg on 20 September and traveled through the northern waters and near Denmark before reaching the North Sea and proceeding through the English Channel.

It had been scheduled to dock in Vadinar in the northwest of India on mid-October, according to data from the Marine Traffic online service. However it was accompanied by a France's naval vessel after it passed the French coastal area and then changed direction and moved towards the east in the direction of the French coast.

Regional Strains

European Union officials have been meeting in the Danish capital under pressure to strengthen European defence after a number of Russian violations into European territorial skies, and days after unmanned aircraft attacked Danish airfields.

Copenhagen airport, then multiple the nation's airports and defense installations on the northern region, faced aerial disruption recently.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told the media that from a European perspective there is only one nation... prepared to threaten us and that is Russia, and therefore we need a forceful answer back.

Danish police have not discovered any proof that the country was behind the recent drone disruption, but Frederiksen linked it explicitly to additional hybrid attacks such as Russia's unmanned aircraft over the Eastern European nation.

It was part of a pattern that had to be viewed from a EU-wide perspective, she stated to reporters on Wednesday.

The incursions have become particularly severe for countries on the European Union's eastern border such as Poland and Estonia.

A group of member states have already backed plans for a multi-layered aerial defense system to quickly identify, then monitor and destroy Russian drones.