Belgium\u2019s special forces boarded and seized an oil tanker from the \u2018shadow fleet\u2019 Russia uses to circumvent Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine, the government said on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said the vessel was intercepted in the North Sea during an overnight operation.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, a vessel from Russia\u2019s shadow fleet was intercepted in the North Sea,\u201d Prevot wrote on social media, thanking Belgian special forces for their \u201cexceptional professionalism and courage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken said the intercepted tanker was \u201cbeing escorted to the port of Zeebrugge, where it will be seized\u201d.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors identified the ship, which was said to be on its way back to Russia, as the \u201cEthera.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tanker flew the flag of Guinea, but an on-board inspection confirmed suspicion that it was sailing under a false flag, they said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Belgium\u2019s special forces boarded and seized an oil tanker from the \u2018shadow fleet\u2019 Russia uses to circumvent Western…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2776,3263,3266,7,3268,3250,125,115,3264,3265,1961,3262,3267,390,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-4152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-afp","9":"tag-andriy-sybiga","10":"tag-belgian-defence-minister-theo-francken","11":"tag-belgium","12":"tag-belgiums-g7","13":"tag-ethera","14":"tag-european-union","15":"tag-france","16":"tag-french-president-emmanuel-macron","17":"tag-guinea","18":"tag-maxime-prevot","19":"tag-moran-security-group","20":"tag-north-sea","21":"tag-russia","22":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4152","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=4152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}