British Royal Marines commandos boarded the Russian tanker Smyrtos this morning in the English Channel, in the first operation of its kind led by armed forces from the United Kingdom.
The ship, measuring 244 meters in length and flying the Cameroonian flag, has been detained and monitored off the coast of Weymouth, in southern England, while investigations continue. According to the BBC, the operation lasted six hours and had the support of officers from the National Crime Agency and the Royal Air Force.
The Prime Minister Keir Starmer celebrated the action: "This successful operation delivers another blow to Russia and reminds those financing Putin's war in Ukraine that we will not let them hide."
The Smyrtos left on June 5 from the Russian port of Ust-Luga, an oil terminal near Saint Petersburg, and crossed into the English Channel on Saturday.
The ship was sanctioned in July 2025 and since then has changed its name — it was previously called Myrtos — and its flag twice, which are common tactics of the so-called Russian "ghost fleet" to evade international scrutiny.
According to the British Ministry of Defence, this fleet, consisting of more than 700 vessels, carries 75% of the Russian oil subject to sanctions and serves as a critical financial lifeline for the Kremlin.
The marines descended onto the ship via ropes from helicopters, searched cabins, and inspected documentation, according to images released by the Ministry of Defense itself.
The operation was supported by a RAF P-8 aircraft, helicopters from the Maritime Air Group, and the ships HMS Sutherland and HMS Ledbury, and was closely coordinated with France.
The former Minister of Armed Forces Al Carns described the maneuver: "Flying at low altitude over the sea, ascending in front of the ship, descending by ropes, securing it, and bringing it to our territorial waters."
Carns also warned that, following this initial interception, "we will probably see more if the opportunities arise."
The Attorney General Richard Hermer emphasized the legal backing of the action: “This government made it clear that it would pursue Russia's phantom fleet with the full force of international law.”
The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky expressed gratitude for the step taken and called for more ambition: "Europe urgently needs legislative measures that allow not only the detention of tankers and restrictions on oil shipments but also the confiscation of the crude they carry."
The operation occurred two weeks after France intercepted the tanker Tagor on June 1 with the support of a British helicopter, in an action announced by President Emmanuel Macron.
The European crackdown on ghost fleets has direct consequences for Cuba, which in recent times relies almost exclusively on Russian oil to sustain its struggling energy economy.
The island produces about 40,000 barrels daily but needs between 90,000 and 110,000, and Venezuela interrupted its supplies in November 2025 while Mexico suspended them in January 2026, leaving Russia as the only supplier.
In January 2026, Cuba did not receive oil for the first time in a decade, and in May the Russian tanker Universal left the island without delivering its cargo of between 250,000 and 270,000 barrels of diesel, pressured by sanctions from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control.
U.S. sanctions, specifically General License 134A issued on March 19, 2026, explicitly exclude Cuba from permitted transactions involving Russian oil, further tightening the restrictions on supplies to Havana.
The day before the interception of the Smyrtos, the captain of another ship in the ghost fleet pleaded guilty before the U.S. justice system, signaling that the pressure on this sanctions evasion network is intensifying on both sides of the Atlantic.
The British Ministry of Defence summarized the message of the operation in one sentence: “There is nowhere to hide.”
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