{"id":4144,"date":"2026-03-01T10:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T10:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/4144\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T10:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T10:46:11","slug":"belgium-france-seize-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker-in-the-north-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/4144\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgium, France seize Russian ‘shadow fleet’ tanker in the North Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Belgium<\/a>‘s special forces boarded and seized an oil tanker allegedly belonging to what has been dubbed the “shadow fleet”<\/a> Russia<\/a> uses to circumvent Western sanctions<\/a> over the war in Ukraine<\/a>, the government said on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Pr\u00e9vot said the vessel was intercepted in the North Sea during an overnight operation.<\/p>\n

“Today, a vessel from Russia’s shadow fleet was intercepted in the North Sea,” Pr\u00e9vot wrote on X, thanking Belgian special forces for their “exceptional professionalism and courage”.<\/p>\n

Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken said the intercepted tanker was “being escorted to the port of Zeebrugge, where it will be seized”.<\/p>\n

A Belgian official \u200csaid the seized vessel is named Ethera<\/a> and is on the European Union<\/a>‘s \u200bsanctions list.<\/p>\n

Read moreAre the West’s tightening oil sanctions finally taking their toll on Russia\u2019s economy?<\/a><\/p>\n

French President Emmanuel Macron<\/a> confirmed on X that French naval forces assisted in the operation, calling it a “major blow” to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet.<\/p>\n

Russia has used a flotilla of ageing tankers of opaque ownership to get around restrictions on its lucrative crude exports imposed over its 2022 all-out invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The European Union has blacklisted hundreds of vessels in a bid to sap Moscow’s war chest.<\/p>\n

“Sanctions only matter if they are enforced. Today, we enforced them,” Pr\u00e9vot said.<\/p>\n

Francken told Reuters that the seized vessel was suspected of sailing with a “false flag \u2060and false documents”.<\/p>\n

Maritime tracking site VesselFinder reports the Ethera is sailing under a Guinean flag.<\/p>\n

The operation was carried out alongside Belgium’s G7, Nordic and Baltic partners and in coordination with France, he added.<\/p>\n

Russia has called the seizure of its tankers or \u2060vessels carrying its \u200bcargoes an act of piracy.<\/p>\n

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Belgium‘s special forces boarded and seized an oil tanker allegedly belonging to what has been dubbed the “shadow…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,125,3257,3236,390,3237,3258,430],"class_list":{"0":"post-4144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-european-union","10":"tag-minister-maxime-prevot","11":"tag-oil-tanker","12":"tag-russia","13":"tag-shadow-fleet","14":"tag-special-forces","15":"tag-theo-francken"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}