French Navy intercepts oil tanker traveling from Russia

The French Navy, with backing from the U.K., intercepted a sanctioned oil tanker traveling from Russia, French President Emmanuel Macron announced Monday, as Europe looks to clamp down on Moscow’s energy profits.

In a social media post, Mr. Macron said French forces intercepted the Tagor, a ship under international sanctions, 400 miles west of France in international waters of the Atlantic Ocean in “strict compliance with the law of the sea.”

French maritime authorities said the ship originated from the Russian port of Murmansk in the northwestern part of the country.

“It is unacceptable for ships to circumvent international sanctions, violate the law of the sea, and fund the war that Russia has been waging against Ukraine for more than 4 years,” Mr. Macron wrote on X. “These vessels, which fail to adhere to the most basic rules of maritime navigation, also pose a threat to the environment and to everyone’s safety.”

The post was accompanied by a video of French soldiers rappelling from a hovering helicopter onto the deck of the Tagor.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesperson for the Russian government, said Moscow considers the interception to be illegal.

“We consider such actions illegal, as they amount to international piracy,” Mr. Peskov told reporters at a briefing on Monday.

The operation is the latest in a string of incidents in which the French navy has seized Russian-linked vessels in an attempt to curb some of Moscow’s energy profits, which are used to finance its war in Ukraine.

French forces have boarded two tankers this year, both in the Mediterranean Sea, forcing at least one of them to pay a multimillion-euro fee before being released.

Those tankers, including the Tagor, are suspected of being part of Russia’s “shadow fleet,” a network of vessels used by sanctioned countries to transport illicit goods.