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Britain and France continue to unveil sanctions and step up actions against the shadow fleet in Europe
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France claimed on Thursday to have intercepted another Russian ‘shadow fleet’ oil tanker, just days after British Royal Marines stormed a ship in the Channel.
French president Emmanuel Macron said that his country’s navy had intercepted an oil tanker as it transited near the coast of Sicily, accusing Russia of using the ship to skirt Western sanctions.
“This new action against the shadow fleet, conducted days after a similar operation by Britain, shows Europeans’ determination,” Macron said, adding that the interception took place on Tuesday.
“We will not let the shadow fleet evade sanctions and finance the Russian war effort,” he said, sharing a video showing Marines descending from helicopters onto the Deliver.
France has intercepted at least five tankers it says are part of Russia’s shadow fleet, old vessels that Russia has relied on to ship oil and gas and to skirt Western sanctions.
Moscow has called such actions illegal.
Ukraine’s Fire Point, maker of the Flamingo cruise missile, is accelerating plans to develop a European missile defence system after an agreement with German radar maker Hensoldt and hopes to have its first interceptors ready by the end of the year.
Fire Point, which is using its own FP-7X rocket as the interceptor missile, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Munich-based company last week, which will provide radar for the ballistic missile defence system, using its TRML-4D high-performance radar.
Denys Shtilierman, Fire Point’s co-founder and chief designer, said the company was in the process of signing an agreement with a European defence firm to provide the imaging infrared (IIR) homing device for the interceptor missile.
Talks are also underway with another European firm to furnish a radio frequency (RF) seeker, which allows an interceptor missile to track targets using electromagnetic signals, Shtilierman said. He did not give the companies’ names.
A global shortage of ballistic missile defences is one of Ukraine’s most pressing challenges in its four-year war with Russia. Demand for missile defences has increased from the U.S. and its allies following the Iran war, while production of U.S.-made Patriot missiles — the most effective system — has not kept pace with Russia’s output of ballistic missiles, which it uses to pound Ukrainian cities, infrastructure and military sites.
The European Union will transfer the first tranche of its promised €90 billion loan to Ukraine on Thursday, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
The first tranche consists of €3.2 billion, von der Leyen said at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdansk, Poland, on Thursday.
Von der Leyen said a promised investment fund for the reconstruction of Ukraine, backed by the EU, France, Germany and Poland, was also “ready to go”, and could mobilise around €500 million this year.
The Kremlin said on Thursday that it would look into its legal options and employ them to the fullest extent if Russian crude oil from a tanker seized by Britain this month is sold.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper said Britain could hold an auction to sell off the 100,000 tons of Russian crude oil on board the Smyrtos, a suspected Russian shadow fleet tanker intercepted by British forces in the Channel on June 14. The proceeds could be used to fund Ukraine, the paper added.
“There are certainly legal options for responding; they will be examined, and the situation will be analysed,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on a conference call.
The security situation on NATO’s eastern flank is unstable and risks could escalate soon, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday after meeting leaders from the region.
“We also share, without exception, the opinion that the situation is very unstable and various types of escalation can be expected in the coming weeks and months,” Tusk told a news conference.
Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media on Thursday that Ukrainian forces targeted the Poltavska oil depot in the Krasnodar region overnight, hitting targets some 300km from the front line.
He said the Security Service of Ukraine then hit two oil refineries in Ufa – Bashneft-Ufaneftekhim and Bashneft-Novoil, some 1,500km from the front line.
Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that his country’s navy had intercepted an oil tanker as it transited near the coast of Sicily, in what he called his country’s latest action against the ‘shadow fleet’ Russia uses to ship oil and gas and to skirt Western sanctions.
“This new action against the shadow fleet, conducted days after a similar operation by Britain, shows Europeans’ determination,” Macron said in a post on Instagram, adding that the interception took place on Tuesday.
“We will not let the shadow fleet evade sanctions and finance the Russian war effort,” he added.
Macron posted a video showing Marines descending from helicopters onto the Deliver.
France has intercepted at least five tankers it says are part of Russia’s shadow fleet, old vessels that Russia has relied on to ship oil and gas and to skirt Western sanctions.
Moscow has called such actions illegal.
The Kremlin on Thursday denied a Wall Street Journal report that it is pressuring Belarus to support an expansion of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Ukraine expects to sign more than 160 agreements worth more than €10 billion euros over the next two days during a major recovery conference in the Polish city of Gdansk, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Syvyrdenko said on Thursday.
Svyrydenko also said that the first 3.2 billion euro tranche from the European Union’s €90 billion loan would be announced today.
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