French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that the French navy seized another oil tanker from Russia’s so-called shadow fleet in the Mediterranean near Sicily. It is the fifth such takeover by France since it launched an enforcement campaign against the fleet in September last year, and it came about 10 days after Britain carried out a similar operation near its territorial waters in an effort to squeeze Kremlin revenue used to fund the war against Ukraine.
Macron announced the seizure on X and posted a short video showing French naval commandos boarding the ship. In the footage, a helicopter hovers overhead, and armed soldiers enter a room on board. The tanker, Deliver, was reported to be sailing under the flag of Cameroon after departing Primorsk in Russia. Macron said the takeover happened on Tuesday and was justified because, in his view, the vessel had violated maritime law. He said the operation showed European determination and that France would not allow the shadow fleet to evade sanctions or finance Russia’s war effort.
The term “shadow fleet” refers to a network of often aging tankers that sail under various flags and opaque ownership structures to bypass Western sanctions on Russian oil. Western estimates put the fleet at more than 700 tankers, handling about 75% of Russia’s oil exports and serving as a financial lifeline for the Kremlin. Russia has repeatedly denounced such seizures as piracy. France said oil and gas export revenues in Russia fell 24% in 2025 compared with the previous year.
The French announcement came after the Kremlin said earlier Thursday that it would examine its “legal options” over reports that Britain may auction the crude seized on the tanker Smyrtos in a previous operation in the English Channel. That vessel was reported to have been carrying 100,000 tons of oil, and the proceeds from any sale could go to Kyiv. France has now seized five tankers since September, and AFP said three of the four earlier ones were later released after fines were paid, including one that paid “several million euros.”
