The French armed forces, in cooperation with the navy, carried out a raid on the Boracay tanker, which is anchored off the coast of France near Saint-Nazaire. The ship, flying the Benin flag, is suspected of being involved in Russia's shadow fleet - a network of tankers allegedly used to circumvent international sanctions. French soldiers have been sent on board to ensure control and launch an investigation.
Boracay has long been on the sanctions lists of the European Union and the UK. According to investigators, the ship is characterised by frequent changes of identity, opaque ownership and the use of methods typical of the shadow fleet, such as illegal transhipment of oil at sea or manipulation of documentation. In addition, the crew refused to prove the nationality of the vessel and did not comply with the French authorities' requests.
The intervention is being investigated in connection with recent drone incidents over Denmark. According to publicly available information, Boracay was in the Baltic area on the days when unidentified drones disrupted traffic at Copenhagen and Aalborg airports. The Guardian reported that some of the vessels may have served as a platform for launching these drones.
French President Emmanuel Macron defended the intervention and stressed that the shadow fleet is a real and dangerous phenomenon. Estimates suggest that there are between six and ten hundred vessels secretly transporting Russian oil and undermining the effectiveness of sanctions. Reuters quoted Macron as saying that France must stop these practices and protect European security and energy stability.
On the Russian side, a Kremlin spokesman responded Dmitry Peskov, who said Moscow had no specific information about the Boracay tanker. He also accused some countries of "obviously provocative actions". According to Peskov, Russia is encountering hostile behaviour designed to destabilise the situation in Europe. The TASS news agency added that the West is trying to extend pressure on Russia's shadow fleet to Moscow's allies, which the Russian media interprets as part of a wider trade and information war.
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