Russian tanker sanctioned by US crusing by means of English Channel | EUROtoday

A Russian tanker sanctioned by the US is crusing by means of the English Channel simply 24 hours after an analogous vessel was seized by American forces with assist from the UK.

The US sanctioned the ‘Tavian’ in 2024 for its alleged involvement within the distribution of illicit oil.

Britain helped US forces seize a Russian-flagged oil tanker, the beforehand Venezuela-linked Marinera, within the north Atlantic between Iceland and Scotland on Wednesday.

The ship’s interception got here as tensions develop between Europe and the US president over his repeated threats to take over the Danish territory of Greenland.

The authorities didn’t deny it was monitoring the Tavian.

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson stated: “The defence secretary set out in Parliament yesterday that deterring, disrupting and degrading the Russian shadow fleet is a priority for this government. We will not comment on specific operational planning or give a running commentary on live maritime traffic websites.”

Earlier Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, stated he was the UK was “very happy” to be concerned in Wednesday’s motion.

“We don’t always comment on what our military is involved in, but we were very happy to be involved yesterday because we saw it as being in our national interest.”

Defence secretary John Healey told MPs the ship had a “nefarious history”, and was “part of a Russian-Iranian axis of sanctions evasion which is fuelling terrorism, conflict and misery from the Middle East to Ukraine”.

He said the seizure was legally justified and that the tanker had been “stateless” and falsely flying the flag of Guyana when it was first intercepted, before changing its name and attempting to adopt the Russian flag.

The UK supported the operation at the request of US President Donald Trump as part of “international efforts to crack down on sanctionsbusting and shadow transport exercise”, he stated.

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