{"id":36406,"date":"2026-01-23T01:57:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T01:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/france-seizes-a-suspicious-tanker-linked-to-russia-s-shadow-fleet-in-the-mediterranean-sea\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T01:57:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T01:57:21","slug":"france-seizes-a-suspicious-tanker-linked-to-russias-shadow-fleet-in-the-mediterranean-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/en\/france-seizes-a-suspicious-tanker-linked-to-russias-shadow-fleet-in-the-mediterranean-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"**France seizes a suspicious tanker linked to Russia\u2019s \u201cshadow fleet\u201d in the Mediterranean Sea.**"},"content":{"rendered":"

France carries out a high-risk trial: stopping an oil tanker allegedly part of Russia\u2019s sanctions-laden shadow fleet<\/strong><\/p>\n

France announced that it has seized an oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea suspected of being part of Russia\u2019s shadow fleet that violates sanctions, known as the \u201cdark fleet.\u201d<\/p>\n

French President Emmanuel Macron said the tanker, named \u201cGritch,\u201d is \u201csubject to international sanctions and suspected of flying a falsified flag.\u201d<\/p>\n

The vessel was boarded by the French navy with the assistance of its allies on Thursday morning between Spain and Malta. French maritime authorities indicated that the inspection confirmed \u201csuspicions regarding the legality of its flag.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Russian Embassy in Paris announced that it had not been informed of the vessel\u2019s detention.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrance did not inform the Russian Embassy either about the detention of the vessel or about the composition of its crew,\u201d the embassy said in a statement quoted by the Russian state news agency TASS.<\/p>\n

The embassy added that it is checking \u201cwhether there are Russian citizens among the crew of the vessel in order to provide assistance to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moscow\u2019s shadow fleet, referred to as the \u201cdark fleet,\u201d is a covert network of oil tankers used to circumvent Western sanctions on Russian oil exports by shipping oil on aging tankers with opaque ownership or insurance.<\/p>\n

Macron announced the detention of the vessel via Twitter (X), saying: \u201cWe are determined to enforce international law and ensure that sanctions are implemented effectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe activities of the shadow fleet contribute to financing the war of expansion against Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

The French president added that an investigation has already been launched and that the vessel has been \u201crerouted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGritch\u201d was en route from Murmansk, an Arctic port in northern Russia, when it was stopped, according to French authorities. Vessel-tracking websites MarineTraffic and VesselFinder reported that the ship was flying the Comoros flag.<\/p>\n

The inspection and seizure operation involved naval assistance from other countries, including the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

UK Defence Secretary John Healey said Britain provided support for \u201ctracking and surveillance,\u201d with the cruiser named \u201cSkin\u201d tracking the tanker through the Strait of Gibraltar.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWith our allies, we are increasing our readiness to respond to shadow tankers to deprive Vladimir Putin of the funds that finance his illegal occupation of Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Britain has sanctioned 544 vessels from Russia\u2019s shadow fleet.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the move, saying it is \u201cexactly the firmness required to ensure that Russian oil does not finance the Russian war.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShips must be stopped. Isn\u2019t it fair that the oil carried by these tankers be seized and resold?\u201d he said on Twitter.<\/p>\n

Zelensky also called, in a speech delivered in Davos on Thursday, for Europe to do more to ensure its own security, stressing that \u201cEurope likes to discuss the future but avoids taking action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several Western countries imposed sanctions on Russian energy following Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n

Last month, the British armed forces provided support to bolster a U.S. operation aimed at stopping an oil tanker flying the Russian flag in the Atlantic, where the U.S. administration said it violated sanctions by transporting oil for Venezuela and Russia.<\/p>\n

Moscow condemned the move, stating that no country has the right to use force against vessels properly registered in other countries.<\/p>\n

Last October, France stopped another sanctioned oil tanker, named \u201cBoracay,\u201d off its western coast before releasing it a few days later.<\/p>\n

The shadow fleet is gaining increasing importance, with Iran, Venezuela, and Russia accused of using it to evade oil sanctions.<\/p>\n

A well-known financial information company, such as S&P Global, estimates that one in five oil tankers worldwide is used to deliver oil from countries under sanctions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

France carries out a high-risk trial: stopping an oil tanker allegedly part of Russia\u2019s sanctions-laden shadow fleet France announced that it has seized an oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea suspected of being part of Russia\u2019s shadow fleet that violates sanctions, known as the \u201cdark fleet.\u201d French President Emmanuel Macron said the tanker, named \u201cGritch,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-36406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/un-news.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}