Royal Marines Board Sanctioned Tanker Smyrtos in First UK Dark-Fleet Seizure

15 Jun

A screenshot of MariTrace showing the path of the Smyrtos to the English coast.

In the early hours of Sunday 14 June, Royal Marine Commandos and officers from the National Crime Agency boarded and took control of the sanctioned crude tanker Smyrtos in the English Channel. The UK Ministry of Defence confirmed the operation the same day, describing it as the first British-led interdiction of a vessel linked to Russia's shadow fleet. The boarding ran for six hours, the ministry said, with no shots fired and no injuries to the crew.

The marines and NCA officers were supported by Merlin, Wildcat and Chinook helicopters, a Royal Air Force P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, and the warships HMS Sutherland and HMS Ledbury, Navy Lookout reported. Footage released by the ministry showed personnel fast-roping onto the deck from a Chinook and securing the ship with weapons drawn, with the two Royal Navy vessels alongside, according to Seatrade Maritime News. The Smyrtos (IMO 9389100) is a 2009-built Aframax tanker of 106,969 dwt, renamed from Myrtos earlier in 2025.

Lloyd's List reported that the tanker had loaded 101,400 tonnes of Urals crude at the Russian Baltic terminal of Ust-Luga on 4 June and was bound for Sikka, on India's west coast, when it was intercepted. The vessel has been on the UK sanctions list since 15 October 2025 for carrying oil of Russian origin, having been listed by the EU earlier in 2025.

The Smyrtos had been reported as sailing under the Cameroon flag in commercial databases, but Lloyd's List reported that Cameroon had removed the vessel and 35 other shadow-fleet ships from its registry earlier in June, leaving its flag status disputed and the vessel potentially without a valid nationality. The MoD said it boarded the tanker in international waters and that the legal basis included UNCLOS Article 110, which permits a warship to verify a vessel's right to fly its claimed flag where there are reasonable grounds to suspect it is without nationality, Ship & Bunker reported. Equasis lists the registered owner and commercial manager as Hong Kong-based Zhao Yao Shipping, with India's Vika Line Marine Services as ISM manager, per Seatrade Maritime News.

The seizure follows a shift in UK enforcement posture. On 25 March, the government granted armed forces and law enforcement the power to board sanctioned vessels transiting UK waters, including the Channel. Ministers framed the measure as a way to push listed ships onto longer, costlier routes and raise the cost of moving Russian crude.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the operation "delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fuelling Putin's war in Ukraine that we will not let them hide." Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis paid tribute to the personnel involved and said the interdiction struck at the funding behind Russia's war. British assets had previously operated only in support of interdictions led by other states. The UK government says it has now sanctioned more than 500 vessels. Moscow has previously characterised the capture of Russia-linked ships as "piracy."

The Smyrtos has been moved to an anchorage off England's south coast — placed near Weymouth by Lloyd's List — where it is being held while investigations continue and is being monitored for environmental and safety concerns. The cargo, crew arrangements and the ultimate disposition of the vessel had not been detailed by authorities as of writing.

For operators, the change is jurisdictional rather than tactical. A UK sanctions listing now carries the prospect of a boarding in the Channel, one of the world's busiest waterways and a corridor dark-fleet tankers running Baltic crude have used as a matter of routine. Owners and managers of listed tonnage face the choice the policy was designed to impose: avoid the Channel and accept longer, costlier routes, or risk interdiction. The Smyrtos is the first vessel taken under the powers announced in March.