UK intercepts Russian shadow fleet oil tanker

London: Armed British forces boarded and detained a sanctioned tanker on Sunday suspected of being part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” used to ship oil in breach of sanctions imposed over the Ukraine war, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.

Royal Marine commandos rappelled from helicopters onto the vessel, Smyrtos, in the English Channel in what the defence ministry dubbed the first UK-led operation of its kind. The tanker, sailing under a Cameroon flag, left the Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga on June 5 bound for Port Said, Egypt. It will be held off England’s south for a probe. “This operation deli­v­e­rs yet another blow to Russia,” Starmer said. —AP