Paris [France], March 1 (ANI): French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a significant maritime operation in the North Sea targeting the “shadow fleet” used to bypass international restrictions.
In a post on X, Macron said French and Belgian forces conducted a joint operation to intercept a vessel suspected of violating sanctions.
“A major blow to the shadow fleet: in the North Sea, our French Navy helicopters helped last night in the boarding by Belgian forces of an oil tanker under international sanctions. Europeans are determined to cut off the sources of funding for Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine by enforcing sanctions.”
The operation was part of a broader maritime enforcement effort in which Belgian special forces boarded and took control of an oil tanker belonging to the so-called shadow fleet used by Moscow to bypass international restrictions. The vessel was intercepted in the North Sea in the early hours of Sunday.
Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot confirmed details of the mission, underscoring the strategic importance of disrupting the maritime network Russia uses to circumvent Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
In a post on X, Prevot praised the personnel involved in the operation. “Today, a vessel from Russia’s shadow fleet was intercepted in the North Sea,” he wrote, expressing gratitude to Belgian special forces for their “exceptional professionalism and courage.”
Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken said the intercepted tanker was “being escorted to the port of Zeebrugge, where it will be seized.” (ANI)
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