French Navy Seizes Russian Shadow Fleet Tanker Near Sicily

The French navy intercepted and detained the oil tanker Deliver off the coast of Sicily in late June 2026. Emmanuel Macron announced the operation, stating that the vessel is part of a shadow fleet used by Russia to bypass Western sanctions and finance its military effort. The tanker had departed from the Russian port of Primorsk and was bound for Singapore via the Suez Canal.

Although the Deliver sailed under a Cameroonian flag, Western military sources claim the vessel had been removed from Cameroon's registry weeks prior. This left the ship without nationality and in breach of the law of the sea, justifying the boarding. This operation marks the fourth or fifth tanker France has seized since September 2025, and part of a larger European crackdown that has seen nine suspected shadow fleet vessels detained since the start of 2026. This follows a June 14 interception of the tanker Smyrtos by the United Kingdom in the English Channel.

The Embassy of the Russian Federation in France condemned the seizure as an illegal act of piracy and a violation of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Russian President Vladimir Putin has also characterized such detentions as piracy.