Brian WheelerPolitical reporter
The UK is working with allies on plans to seize Russian “shadow fleet” vessels – and wants to use the oil they are carrying to fund Ukraine’s war effort, Defence Secretary John Healey has said.
Since its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has used hundreds of ageing tankers with obscured ownership – known as the shadow fleet – to evade sanctions on its oil exports.
Earlier this year, British forces assisted US troops in seizing an oil tanker, which American officials accused of carrying oil for Venezuela, Russia and Iran, breaking US sanctions.
UK military personnel have yet to board any shadow fleet vessels but Healey told MPs he was exploring military options to step up enforcement of sanctions.
“Should we do more on shadow shipping? Yes we should, and I’ve now identified further military options that we can use to target shadow shipping,” he told the defence committee.
“I’m discussing these with cabinet colleagues.”
He said the UK would shortly be hosting a meeting of Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) nations, which includes eight Nordic and Baltic countries and the Netherlands, to discuss options.
The plan was to “look at the legal basis on which we can act against shadow shipping and sanctioned ships, and the military options that we might use”, he told the committee.
“And this is part of actively stepping up the action on shadow shipping that you’ve seen us do with allies in recent weeks,” he said.
“And it is part of making sure that Putin is not so easily able to fund his war machine in Ukraine through the sale of sanctioned oil.
“And frankly, I’d want to see any oil revenue that could be raised from seized sanctioned ships recycled and put into Ukraine in order to fight Putin’s invasion.”
Healey noted 250 ships have been sanctioned in the past year alone, with Russian oil revenues cut by a quarter in that time.
On Thursday, the French navy intercepted a suspected Russian shadow fleet tanker – named the Grinch – which President Emmanuel Macron said was “subject to international sanctions and suspected of flying a false flag”.
The UK government has identified a legal basis which it believes can be used to allow UK military to board and detain vessels in shadow fleets, BBC News understands.
The Sanctions and Money Laundering Act from 2018 can be used to approve the use of military force, ministers believe.
Last week, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told the BBC the UK was working with European allies on “more assertive” action against shadow fleet vessels.
Russia’s ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin responded to Cooper’s comments by warning that shadow fleet vessels could soon be escorted by Russian government vessels.
“This is a deliberate escalation of instability, the consequences of which for international law and order and global trade will be extremely serious,” Kelin told Russian newspaper Izvestia.
“The result may be higher prices for raw materials and goods, as well as insurance for ships. Security ships will appear.”
He added: “What politicians in London are talking about is essentially a return to the era of the pirate Edward Teach, known as Blackbeard.”
