At least six sanctioned Russian ships aborted attempts to pass through the English Channel in the hours after the UK’s dramatic seizure of one of the Kremlin’s shadow tankers.
In less than 80 minutes, six oil tankers understood to be operating on behalf of Moscow had peeled away from their intended course around the southern edge of England, according to analysis by The i Paper.
Three vessels performed sharp U-turns back in the direction of Scandinavia and Russia, while the others adjusted their courses west to veer towards Ireland, rather than continuing north-east in the direction of the English Channel.
The frantic scramble of the six ships – the Lion I, Sona, Qasr, Pate, Maini and C-Viking – began at around 8:48am on Sunday and lasted for about 77 minutes. All the vessels feature on the UK Sanctions List for reasons including helping to “destabilise Ukraine” or because they “benefit the government of Russia”, however they travel under other flags including Sierra Leone and Cameroon.
Some eight hours before, British forces boarded a sanctioned Russian oil tanker in the English Channel. The detention of the Smyrtos, carrying some 700,000 barrels of Russian crude oil worth an estimated £45m, is the first time Britain has led an interception of a so-called shadow fleet vessel.
