The United States seized a Venezuela-linked oil tanker that was being shadowed by a Russian submarine on Wednesday after a more than two-week-long pursuit across the Atlantic,US officials said.
It appeared to be the first time in recent memory that the US military has seized a Russian-flagged vessel.
Britain confirmed it provided military assistance following a request from the US military.
The seizure came after the tanker, originally known as the Bella-1, slipped through a US maritime “blockade” of sanctioned tankers and rebuffed US Coast Guard efforts to board it.
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A senior Russian lawmaker from the ruling United Russia party, Andrei Klishas, said the seizure of a was an act of outright piracy, the TASS state news agency reported.
In a post on X, the US military’s European Command said the Trump administration seized the vessel for violating US sanctions.
“The blockade of sanctioned and illicit Venezuelan oil remains in FULL EFFECT — anywhere in the world,” US defense secretary Pete Hegseth said in reply to that post.
US officials said the operation was carried out by the Coast Guard and US military.
They added that Russian military vessels were in the general vicinity when the operation took place, including a Russian submarine.
Two US officials speaking on condition of anonymity to the Reuters news agency said Russian military vessels were in the general vicinity of the operation, including a Russian submarine. It was unclear how close the vessels were to the operation, but there were no indications of a confrontation between US and Russian military forces.
John Healey, the UK’s defence secretary, said British forces took part in the operation “as part of global efforts to crack down on sanctions-busting”.
“This ship, with a nefarious history, is part of a Russian-Iranian axis of sanctions evasion which is fuelling terrorism, conflict, and misery from the Middle East to Ukraine,” said Mr Healey. “The UK will continue to step up our action against shadow fleet activity to protect our national security, our economy, and global stability.”
The UK’s ministry of defence said the seized vessel has been “involved in illegal activity, linked to international terrorism and crime including Hezbollah, and part of the web of rising shadow activity that fuels and finances nefarious activity across the globe”.
The US Embassy told the Irish Government that military flights over Irish airspace this week in support of the operation to seize the tanker were in compliance with long standing agreements.
Three US Naval aircraft travelled over Irish sovereign airspace on Monday and Tuesday to track the Marinera.
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said it has been in contact with the US embassy in Dublin regarding the flights and has received assurances the flights met the requirements of the specific arrangement for US military overflights that has been in place since 1959.
The department pointed towards an agreement with the US which grants blanket permission for military overflights on condition they are “unarmed, carry only cargo and passengers, and comply with navigational requirements”.
Last month, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee said all foreign aircraft require diplomatic permission granted on condition the aircraft “does not engage in intelligence gathering and that the flight in question does not form part of a military exercise or operation”.
On Wednesday, Ms McEntee said the US embassy assured her of its compliance with the 1959 agreement. She said she has asked her officials to to provide her with a full report on the matter.
The tanker, now known as the Marinera and registered under a Russian flag, is the latest tanker targeted by the US Coast Guard since the start of US president Donald Trump’s pressure campaign against Venezuela.
The development deepens the confrontation between the two countries over the tanker, which is sailing northeast in the Atlantic Ocean between Iceland and Ireland, with its location transponder active, according to ship-tracking data from MarineTraffic.
The US Coast Guard stopped the tanker in the Caribbean Sea on December 21st last. The ship, which started its journey in Iran, had been on its way to pick up oil in Venezuela.
At the time, the US said it had a seizure warrant on the vessel because it was not flying a valid national flag. But the Bella 1 refused to be boarded and sailed into the Atlantic, with the United States in pursuit.
Then came a series of moves to ward off the US. The fleeing crew painted a Russian flag on the hull, the tanker was renamed and added to an official Russian ship database, and Russia made a formal diplomatic request that the United States stop its chase.
[ Two more US aircraft fly over Ireland to track oil tanker under Russian flagOpens in new window ]
The tanker is part of a so-called shadow fleet that has transported oil for Russia, Iran and Venezuela in violation of sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries.
The US has borne down on them since Mr Trump ordered a “complete blockade” on oil tankers under sanctions going to and from Venezuela.
The tankers appear to be an increasing point of friction between the US and Russia, amid strains created by the US attack on Venezuela, a long-time ally of Russia’s.
In the same week that the Bella 1 adopted a Russian flag and a new name, a second tanker operating in Venezuela, the Hyperion, made a similar change.
At least three additional oil tankers that operated in Venezuelan waters in recent weeks have similarly switched to Russian flags in recent days, according to an official Russian vessel registry, extending a pattern of reflagging among ships under US sanctions.
This week, one of those three disappeared from Venezuelan waters, despite the US blockade on ships under sanctions.
All five vessels are subject to US sanctions for shipping either Iranian or Russian oil and altered their flags and declared home ports in the Russian cities of Sochi or Taganrog in records maintained by the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping.
Separately, the U.S. Coast Guard also intercepted another Venezuela-linked tanker in Latin American waters on Wednesday. - Additional reporting Reuters and The New York Times.
