Suspected Russian ‘shadow fleet’ tanker seized in North Sea
📖 Full Retelling
<p>Belgian special forces boarded the Ethera, which was sailing under the flag of Guinea, on Saturday night</p><p>Belgium has seized an oil tanker believed to form part of the so-called “shadow fleet” used by Russia to circumvent Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine.</p><p>Special forces assisted by French helicopters boarded the ship in a clandestine operation in the North Sea on Saturday night, Belgium’s defence minister, Theo Francken, said on Sunday.</p&
Entity Intersection Graph
No entity connections available yet for this article.
Original Source
Suspected Russian ‘shadow fleet’ tanker seized in North Sea Belgian special forces boarded the Ethera, which was sailing under the flag of Guinea, on Saturday night Belgium has seized an oil tanker believed to form part of the so-called “shadow fleet” used by Russia to circumvent western sanctions over the war in Ukraine . Special forces assisted by French helicopters boarded the ship in a clandestine operation in the North Sea on Saturday night, Belgium’s defence minister, Theo Francken, said on Sunday. Prosecutors said the tanker, identified as the Ethera, was falsely flying the flag of Guinea and was believed to be on its way back to Russia when it was seized in Belgium’s exclusive economic zone. Belgium’s federal prosecutor’s office said the ship’s captain, a Russian citizen, was being questioned and a criminal investigation was under way. In a statement, the office added that ship’s documents found on the Ethera were also suspected of being false. Francken said the vessel was escorted to Zeebrugge harbour, where it will be officially confiscated. The seizure suggests a hardening of Europe’s attitude towards Russia’s shadow fleet. Since the start of the year, western naval forces have intensified their tracking of shadow fleet vessels in the Baltic and North Sea. The US, the UK, France and Germany in particular have been increasing surveillance operations and possess a higher readiness to board vessels at gunpoint using helicopters. The often dilapidated tankers, which tend to be either uninsured or under-insured, sail under the flags of countries such as Panama, the Gambia, Barbados or the Comoros and transport Russian crude oil to destinations including China and India. The oil is processed in the destination countries and then sold on international markets. By this point, it is no longer identified as Russian, and therefore circumvents international sanctions imposed on Moscow as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine. Russia has previously described the seiz...
Read full article at source