{"id":681927,"date":"2026-01-08T09:46:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T09:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/681927\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T09:46:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T09:46:16","slug":"russian-flagged-oil-tanker-what-we-know-about-the-us-seizure-of-the-bella-1-heading-to-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/681927\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian-flagged oil tanker: What we know about the US seizure of the Bella 1 heading to Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n United States forces boarded and seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the Atlantic Ocean Wednesday following a weeks-long chase on the high seas<\/a> which has escalated tensions with Moscow and piled further pressure on its ally Venezuela.\n <\/p>\n

\n The aging, rusting tanker, originally called the Bella 1, was sanctioned by the US in 2024 for operating within a \u201cshadow fleet\u201d of tankers transporting illicit Iranian oil.\n <\/p>\n

\n Last month the US Coast Guard attempted to seize the vessel while it was heading to Venezuela to pick up oil, then operating under the flag of Guyana. But the ship\u2019s crew refused to be boarded and made an abrupt turn into the Atlantic.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Bella 1\u2019s crew later painted a Russian flag on its side, and it appeared in a Russian shipping register under a new name, the Marinera.\n <\/p>\n

\n US officials later said Moscow had dispatched a submarine to escort the vessel as it sailed toward Europe, threatening a possible confrontation between Washington and the Kremlin.\n <\/p>\n

\n Here\u2019s what we know.\n <\/p>\n

Where and how was the Bella 1 seized?<\/p>\n

\n The US repositioned<\/a> military assets to the UK ahead of seizing the tanker, CNN has reported.\n <\/p>\n

\n V-22 Osprey aircraft were active in the UK over the past several days, with flight data appearing to show them running training missions in the UK out of Fairford air base. And two AC-130 gunships were seen arriving at Mildenhall base in the UK on Sunday.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Bella 1 was seized Wednesday roughly 190 miles off the southern coast of Iceland in the northern Atlantic Ocean, according to ship-tracking website MarineTraffic. The site shows the tanker taking a sharp turn south around the time that it was reported seized.\n <\/p>\n

\n Russia\u2019s Transport Ministry confirmed that it lost contact with the tanker after US forces boarded the ship at 7 a.m. ET.\n <\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

\n US Navy SEALs were among the forces that boarded the tanker after they were transported to the ship by the US Army\u2019s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, also known as the \u201cnight stalkers,\u201d according to two people briefed on the operation.\n <\/p>\n

\n The UK defense ministry also said it helped with the seizure \u201cfollowing a US request for assistance.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The US did not release footage of the seizure. Grainy video released by Russian state media RT appears to show a ship shadowing the movements of the Bella 1 in the days before the seizure.\n <\/p>\n

\n In the video shot from aboard the Bella 1, an unmarked vessel can be seen hovering in the distance, partially obscured by fog. The RT report said the boat was a US Coast Guard ship in the Atlantic Ocean.\n <\/p>\n

\n US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said the crew of the US Coast Guard Munro had pursued the ship for weeks \u201cacross the high seas and through treacherous storms.\u201d However, it\u2019s unclear if the ship in the RT footage is the Munro.\n <\/p>\n

\n Ahead of the vessel\u2019s seizure, the Russian military had started to move around naval assets and a submarine to protect the ship, according to a US official. But it\u2019s unclear how close those vessels were to the tanker when it was seized, the source said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Russia condemned the Bella 1\u2019s seizure, with its transport ministry arguing \u201cno state has the right to use force against vessels that are properly registered in the jurisdictions of other nations\u201d under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a treaty which the US has not signed.\n <\/p>\n

\n The country\u2019s Foreign Ministry demanded that the US return the Russian citizens aboard \u201cto their homeland,\u201d according to the Russian state news agency TASS.\n <\/p>\n

\n TASS also reported Russian lawmaker Leonid Slutsky called the US seizure of the vessel an act of \u201c21st-century piracy\u201d which violates international law.\n <\/p>\n

\n Russian leader Vladimir Putin has yet to comment on the seizure.\n <\/p>\n

\n White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed risks of a confrontation with Russia, arguing US President Donald Trump maintains a good relationship with Putin.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI believe those personal relationships are going to continue,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n

\n China also condemned the seizure on Thursday, calling it a \u201cserious violation of international law.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cChina has always opposed illegal unilateral sanctions that lack a basis in international law and are not authorized by the UN Security Council, and opposes any actions that violate the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and infringe upon the sovereignty and security of other countries,\u201d foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters at a regular briefing.\n <\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

\n The vessel was not carrying any oil when it was seized, according to analytics firm Kpler.\n <\/p>\n

\n That\u2019s in contrast with the Skipper<\/a> and the Centuries,<\/a> the other two tankers successfully intercepted by the Coast Guard in recent weeks as part of Washington\u2019s pressure campaign on Venezuela. The US piloted both to Texas and is planning to seize their oil cargoes.\n <\/p>\n

\n According to Kpler, the Bella 1\u2019s compliance profile includes two separate 99-day gaps where the ship switched off its Automatic Identification System (AIS), a mandatory, real-time ship tracking system.\n <\/p>\n

\n Switching off AIS transmission is a common tactic observed among vessels loading sanctioned Iranian crude, according to Kpler.\n <\/p>\n

\n In a separate operation Wednesday, the US said it seized an oil tanker called Sophia, in international waters near the Caribbean.\n <\/p>\n

\n The ship was a \u201cstateless, sanctioned\u201d tanker which had been \u201cconducting illicit activities in the Caribbean Sea,\u201d according to a post to social media<\/a> by US Southern Command.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Sophia is carrying approximately 2 million barrels of crude oil which were loaded from a port in Venezuela, according to Emmanuel Belostrino<\/a>, senior manager of crude oil market data at global data and analytics provider Kpler.\n <\/p>\n

\n The White House on Wednesday vowed to continue seizing sanctioned oil tankers<\/a> despite concerns it could ratchet up tensions with Russia and China \u2013 which is a purchaser of Venezuelan oil.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump is \u201cgoing to enforce our policy that\u2019s best for the United States of America,\u201d Leavitt said during a press briefing.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThat means enforcing the embargo against all dark fleet vessels that are illegally transporting oil.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Kpler data shared with CNN on Thursday showed that at least 16 vessels had been loaded with crude or fuel oil in Venezuela between October 2025 and January 2026. Ten of those vessels had switched off their AIS transmitters and had possibly departed Venezuela, Kpler said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The other six vessels, all of which had taken on crude in December and January, have an estimated combined capacity of almost 9 million barrels of oil, Kpler said.\n <\/p>\n

\n AIS data indicated three of those had not yet departed Venezuela, Kpler said, while the other three had switched their transmitters off.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"United States forces boarded and seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the Atlantic Ocean Wednesday following a weeks-long…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[332],"class_list":{"0":"post-681927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-russia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115858845509659864","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}