Footage released by the Ministry of Defence shows Royal Marine Commandos boarding a sanctioned Russian shadow fleet oil tanker in the English Channel, in what the government has called the first UK-led operation of its kind, the Ministry of Defence has said.
The video shows personnel from 42 Commando, part of the recently renamed UK Commando Force, conducting maritime interdiction operations on the vessel, identified as the SMYRTOS and described as sailing under a false Cameroonian flag. The ship was boarded by the Royal Marines alongside specially trained law enforcement officers from the National Crime Agency, in an operation the Ministry of Defence said was carried out despite Russia’s best efforts to evade sanctions and continue fuelling its war with Ukraine.
Watch: Royal Marine Commandos board the sanctioned Russian shadow fleet tanker SMYRTOS in the Channel, in the first UK-led operation of its kind, backed by HMS Sutherland, HMS Ledbury and an RAF P-8. The vessel is now held off the south coast as investigations continue. pic.twitter.com/omTnGlh3gk
— UK Defence Journal (@UKDefJournal) June 14, 2026
The military operation lasted six hours and was supported by aircraft from the Maritime Air Group, including Chinooks, Merlin Mk4 and Wildcat helicopters, an RAF P-8 Poseidon, and the warships HMS Sutherland and HMS Ledbury. The vessel will now be moved provisionally to an anchorage off the south coast of England, where it will be monitored for any environmental or safety concerns.
The false flag the tanker was flying sits at the heart of how the operation was conducted within the law. Vessels in Russia’s shadow fleet routinely fly so-called flags of convenience, registering under the flag of a state with which they have little genuine connection, and where a ship’s claimed nationality cannot be verified it can be treated as stateless under the international law of the sea, opening it to boarding. The Ministry of Defence has pointed to Article 110 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which permits a warship to exercise a right of visit to verify a vessel’s flag where there are reasonable grounds to suspect it is without nationality, after which the United Kingdom can exercise powers under its own legislation.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer agreed in March that British armed forces and law enforcement officers could board shadow fleet vessels in accordance with international law, and the Ministry of Defence said the enforcement action against the SMYRTOS in UK territorial waters was carried out in line with both domestic and international law.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:
“This operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fueling Putin’s war in Ukraine that they cannot hide. I want to pay tribute to all those involved, including our Armed Forces and law enforcement officers who keep this country safe 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”
Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis said:
“Operations like this require skill, professionalism and courage. I pay tribute to our Armed Forces personnel and all those involved. Russia relies on its shadow fleet to fund their conflict in Ukraine and our interdiction delivers a blow to Putin’s illegal war.”
The operation was conducted in close coordination with France, building on recent UK support for allied interdictions that has included RAF and Royal Navy capabilities backing US and French operations.
The shadow fleet is the term used for the large number of ageing, often opaquely owned and inadequately insured tankers Russia uses to move its oil in defiance of Western sanctions, with the Ministry of Defence saying the fleet of more than 700 vessels carries around 75 per cent of Russia’s sanctioned oil and generates a war fund that pays for the missiles and drones used against Ukraine. The United Kingdom has sanctioned almost 600 such vessels to date, and the boarding of the SMYRTOS marks the first time British forces have led an interdiction of this kind rather than supporting an ally.
Probably took 6 months for Reeves to sign off on the fuel being used.
Anyway, excellent work by the men and women in uniform.
Finally! Backing up words with action – should have happened sooner and should definitely not be a one off.
Good job to all involved.
Despite all the conspiracy theories this explains a lot about why it’s only now we are seeing these operations, almost all French and US operations to grab tankers so far have been for stateless vessels.
I suggest the Russian shadow fleet became cocky over the last few months after their initial scare. Previously they were sailing Russian flagged vesells up the channel or foreign flagged vessels the long way around the top of the UK.
However stateless vessels flying false flags are legally easy to grab. Indeed the law of the sea mandates that we are required to board such vessels. This is a very different state of afares from grabbing Russian flagged vessels in the channel which is not something we should be considering doing at this stage.
Might also be because there are now three escorts operating in the Channel regularly. Dauntless is back out, and Sutherland and St Albans are in and out of port.
Lets not kid ourselves. This is just a drop in the ocean when it comes to curbing the activities of Russia’s shadow fleet.
Even more so, it’s just a poster effort by the Labour government to attempt to look like action is being taken, probably a distraction from Starmlin’s ineptitude, when in reality the country is crumbling beneath Labour and because of them, just like it always does.