PARIS (AP) 鈥� The French Navy, with support from the United Kingdom, has intercepted an oil tanker under international sanctions that was traveling from Russia, the most recent effort by nations that support Ukraine to target Russian oil exports helping to finance
French President announced the interception in a post Monday on X, saying the Tagor was boarded on Sunday in the Atlantic. The post included a video showing a person rappelling from a helicopter onto a ship. It is the latest in a series of French naval interceptions of tankers suspected of links to Russia.
鈥淚t is unacceptable that boats skirt international sanctions, violate the law of the sea and finance the war that Russia has been waging for more than 4 years against Ukraine,鈥� Macron wrote. 鈥淭hese ships, that don鈥檛 respect the most elementary rules of maritime navigation, are also a threat to the environment and everyone鈥檚 security.鈥�
Oil revenue is a , allowing Putin to pour money into the war effort against Ukraine without worsening inflation for everyday people and avoiding a .
Russia is believed to be using a fleet of hundreds of ships to evade international sanctions imposed over the war. France and other countries have vowed to crack down on the sanction-busting so-called 鈥渟hadow fleet.鈥�
French maritime authorities said the tanker was intercepted more than 400 nautical miles west of France, in international waters in the Atlantic. It was traveling from the northwestern Russian port of Murmansk, according to the authorities鈥� statement.
It said the tanker is suspected of operating under a false flag and that the French navy is now escorting it to an anchorage for more checks.
Tankers previously intercepted by France include the Deyna, in March. Another tanker, the Grinch, in the Mediterranean in January, was released in February after .
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