Keir Starmer said he directed British troops to seize a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker in the Channel in the early hours of Sunday, the first time the UK has led a naval capture since the start of the war in Ukraine.
The prime minister released a video on TikTok early on Sunday showing heavily armed Royal Marine commandos boarding the oil-laden Smyrtos tanker, which had been sailing south of the Isle of Wight en route from Russia to India.
“Another bad day to be Vladimir Putin,†Starmer posted on TikTok. “In the early hours of this morning, I directed our armed forces to intercept a shadow fleet oil tanker attempting to pass through the English Channel.â€
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the six-hour operation had been months in the planning, though it comes days after the resignation of John Healey as defence secretary in a row over future military spending.
Healey had accused Starmer of risking the safety of the UK by refusing to increase defence budgets significantly by the end of the parliament, and not being willing to provide more than £13.5bn to plug an £18bn deficit in the defence investment plan.
Though Downing St had announced in March that Starmer had given the green light for the British military to board the shadow fleet tanker under sanction, the rhetoric from the prime minister was notably heightened.
“This successful operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fuelling [Vladimir] Putin's war in Ukraine that we will not let them hide,†Starmer said. “I want to thank those involved, including our armed forces and law enforcement officers who keep this country safe 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.â€
There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin, though one Russian senator, Dmitry Rogozin, a former space agency chief, suggested booby trapping Russian tankers so they could in future be blown up if seized.
Video later released by the MoD showed marine commandos roping down from a Chinook helicopter on to the tanker at night, and officers from the National Crime Agency inspecting the seized tanker's paperwork.
The Smyrtos was carrying more than 100,000 tonnes of Russian crude oil, according to the maritime publication Lloyd's List, and though it had sailed under a Cameroon flag it had been expelled from the African country's registry, leaving it legally stateless.
Lt Col Tom Quinn, the commanding officer of the operation, said 25 crew members of various nationalities were captured. None put up any resistance when the British military boarded overnight, he added.
Russian warships had been escorting shadow fleet tankers through the Channel in the spring, but the Smyrtos was unprotected. Tracking data showed other shadow vessels turning around to avoid the Dover strait on Sunday.
According to the tracking website Marine Traffic, the vessel is now anchored off the coast of Dorset, near Weymouth. Authorities said it would be monitored for environmental or safety concerns.
British authorities say the Smyrtos is one of 700 vessels in a shadow fleet responsible for carrying 75% of Russia's oil exports, which are under international sanctions.
The shadow fleet provides Russia with what analysts say is a critical lifeline, allowing oil to be sold and funds generated to continue the country's war against Ukraine, with exports regularly going to India and China.
Several European countries have previously seized Russia-linked tankers, while the UK has assisted the French military when it carried out something similar in the Atlantic in June.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, said he was grateful to Britain for the tanker's detention. Kyiv has been lobbying its allies to toughen enforcement against the shadow fleet, in an effort to cut Russia's lucrative oil revenues. “Europe urgently needs to take legislative steps to enable not only the detention of tankers and restrictions on oil shipments, but also the confiscation of the oil they carry. This will certainly help bring peace closer,†he said.
The MoD said the military operation had been supported by aircraft from the Maritime Air Group (Chinooks, Merlin Mk4 and Wildcat), an RAF P-8 aircraft, as well as the navy vessels HMS Sutherland and HMS Ledbury.
Dan Jarvis, who became the defence secretary on Thursday after Healey's resignation, said: “Russia relies on its shadow fleet to fund their conflict in Ukraine and our interdiction delivers a blow to Putin's illegal war.â€
Writing on LinkedIn, the attorney general, Richard Hermer, said: “This government made clear that we would pursue Russia's shadow fleet under the full force of international law.â€
