Prosecutors said that the ‘Ethera’ flew under the flag of Guinea – Copyright Belga\/AFP NICOLAS MAETERLINCK<\/p>\n
Umberto BACCHI<\/p>\n
Belgium\u2019s special forces boarded and seized an oil tanker from the \u201cshadow fleet\u201d Russia uses to circumvent Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine, in an overnight operation announced Sunday.<\/p>\n
The Belgian government said the \u201cvessel from Russia\u2019s shadow fleet\u201d was intercepted in the North Sea, with aerial support from French military helicopters.<\/p>\n
Defence Minister Theo Francken said the tanker was escorted to the port of Zeebrugge to be seized, after being intercepted in Belgium\u2019s exclusive economic zone.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors identified the ship, which was said to be on its way back to Russia, as the \u201cEthera\u201d.\u00a0<\/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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShip documents were found that are suspected of being false,\u201d the federal prosecutor\u2019s office said in a statement, adding that authorities have opened a criminal investigation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a ship sails under a false flag, this means that it does not comply with several international regulations,\u201d the statement added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed on X that French naval forces assisted in the operation, calling it a \u201cmajor blow\u201d to Russia\u2019s so-called \u201cshadow fleet\u201d.<\/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 Belgian defence ministry said the seized tanker was on the European Union\u2019s sanction list. The EU has blacklisted hundreds of vessels in a bid to sap Moscow\u2019s war chest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSanctions only matter if they are enforced. Today, we enforced them,\u201d Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot, who is also Belgium\u2019s deputy prime minister, said on X.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Resolute and justified\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
The operation was carried out alongside Belgium\u2019s G7, Nordic and Baltic partners and in coordination with France, he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
France provided air support with two NH90 helicopters, the defence ministry said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Footage of the operation posted online by Macron showed Belgian forces rope down from the aircraft to board the ship.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI congratulate our armed forces on their professional and decisive conduct during tonight\u2019s successful operation, and thank our French partners for providing essential support,\u201d Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever wrote on social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s embassy in Belgium said it had not been officially notified of the tanker\u2019s detention, nor informed about the nationality of its crew.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe embassy is currently taking the necessary steps to determine whether there are Russian citizens on board and to ensure their legal rights if confirmed,\u201d it said in a Telegram post.<\/p>\n
Sanctions aimed at limiting Moscow\u2019s revenues used to pursue its war have shut out many tankers carrying Russian oil from Western insurance and shipping systems.<\/p>\n
Some experts and political leaders also suspect \u201cshadow fleet\u201d vessels of carrying out sabotage, as part of a \u201chybrid war\u201d by Russia against Western countries.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed Belgium\u2019s \u201cstrong action against Moscow\u2019s floating purse\u201d and thanked France for supporting the operation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis particular vessel has long been under US, EU, and UK sanctions, but nonetheless continued to illegally transport Russian oil using a false flag and forged documents,\u201d he wrote on X.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga added that \u201csuch resolute and justified action\u201d was required to deprive Russia of resources to continue its war against Ukraine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe urge all partners to follow this example, counter Russia\u2019s shadow fleet resolutely through sanctions and concrete action, and advance peace through strength,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In February, it was revealed that two employees of a Russian private security company were aboard another suspected Russian \u201cshadow fleet\u201d tanker seized by France in September.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The two men were employed by Moran Security Group, a Russian private security company, and were tasked with monitoring the crew and gathering intelligence, a source with knowledge of the matter told AFP.<\/p>\n
French forces boarded another suspected Russian tanker, the Grinch, in January.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prosecutors said that the ‘Ethera’ flew under the flag of Guinea – Copyright Belga\/AFP NICOLAS MAETERLINCK Umberto BACCHI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,390,3269,3260,3270],"class_list":["post-4158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-russia","tag-sanction","tag-tanker","tag-ukraine-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158","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=4158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}