This handout photograph made available on June 1 by the French Marine Nationale (French Navy) shows navy personnel observing the Tagor, a sanctioned Russian oil tanker, some 400 nautical miles west of France's Brittany coast. France and its allies have detained a sanctioned Russian oil tanker in the Atlantic over the weekend, President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday. AFP-Yonhap
PARIS — The French Navy, with support from the United Kingdom, has intercepted an oil tanker under international sanctions that was traveling from Russia, the most recent effort by nations that support Ukraine to target Russian oil exports helping to finance President Vladimir Putin’s war.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced the interception in a post Monday on X, saying the Tagor was boarded on Sunday in the Atlantic. The post included a video showing a person rappelling from a helicopter onto a ship. It is the latest in a series of French naval interceptions of tankers suspected of links to Russia.
“It is unacceptable that boats skirt international sanctions, violate the law of the sea and finance the war that Russia has been waging for more than 4 years against Ukraine,” Macron wrote. “These ships, that don’t respect the most elementary rules of maritime navigation, are also a threat to the environment and everyone’s security.”
