France Seizes Another 'Shadow Fleet' Tanker and Sends It to Réunion; Russia Decries 'Piracy'
France's military was taking a tanker suspected of being part of Russia's "shadow fleet" skirting Western sanctions to Réunion island on Tuesday, in what Moscow called another act of "piracy," Reuters reported on October 13. The DF Peak, previously named the Kaliningrad and flagged from Benin, is at least the fifth Russian-linked tanker to be seized by France since 2024.
French army spokesperson Colonel Xavier Rival told a news conference that authorities had doubts regarding the flag under which the vessel was sailing and carried out an inspection."Those doubts remain, and therefore the vessel is currently proceeding to Reunion Island by decision of the public prosecutor, so that we can examine the matter in detail," he said. In a post on X on Monday evening, President Emmanuel Macron showed French military personnel intercepting and boarding the tanker from helicopters some 450 nautical miles south of Réunion, a French territory in the Indian Ocean. "France is determined to combat the shadow fleet, wherever it may be in the world," he said, adding that the vessel was suspected of sailing under a false flag and being involved in illicit fuel transportation activities.
Russia's embassy in France was quoted by the state RIA news agency as saying the seizure of the DF Peak was "piracy" and a blatant violation of international law; the embassy said it was trying to determine whether any Russian citizens were among the crew, and that France had not notified Russia about the seizure. The vessel was hit by U.S., UK and EU sanctions in 2024;its Hong Kong-based manager listed in shipping databases, Zheng Xin Marine, could not be reached for comment.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 海上油轮（示意）。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons，Thomas Timlen from Singapore, Singapore 摄，CC0 授权
