US forces have seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the Atlantic in a dramatic move that could put Donald Trump on a collision course with Vladimir Putin.
The UK later revealed British armed forces provided support to the United States’ capture of the Marinera, a Venezuelan-linked vessel previously known as Bella-1, as it travelled north and eastwards through the waters between Iceland and Scotland on Wednesday.
The interception of the vessel comes amid a climate of global instability, with tensions also growing between Mr Trump and Europe over the US president’s repeated threats to take over Greenland.
The diplomatic row over Greenland came just days after US forces entered Venezuela and seized its president, Nicolas Maduro, in an extraordinary show of American military power. Mr Maduro was taken to New York, where he is facing charges for drug trafficking, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and “narco-terrorism”.
Now, the capture of the Marinera could prove to be a new flashpoint in relations between the West and Moscow after Russia’s transport ministry appeared to suggest that international maritime law had been breached.
Mr Trump appeared to take a swipe at America’s Nato partners following the operation, writing on social media: “We will always be there for Nato, even if they won’t be there for us. The only nation that China and Russia fear and respect is the DJT (Donald J Trump) REBUILT USA. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
His claim of a lack of Western support came despite British involvement in the interception of the Marinera. RAF surveillance craft and a naval supply ship, the RFA Tideforce, were among the British military assets that took part in the operation, according to the Ministry of Defence, which insisted the UK’s support was “in full compliance with international law”.
Defence secretary John Healey said: “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.”
Arguing the seizure was legally justified, Mr Healey later told MPs on Wednesday evening the tanker had been “stateless” and falsely flying the flag of Guyana when it was first intercepted, before changing its name and attempting to adopt the Russian flag.
He said the UK supported the operation at the request of Mr Trump as part of “global efforts to crack down on sanctions-busting and shadow shipping activity”.
The sanctioned tanker has been pursued by the US over several weeks, after it apparently escaped what Mr Trump described as a “total naval blockade” of Venezuela put in place in December.
The Marinera is one of a “shadow fleet” of tankers carrying oil in breach of US and international sanctions. Currently empty, the vessel hastily renamed itself and painted a Russian flag on its side in a bid to secure Moscow’s protection after turning toward Europe.
Russia’s transport ministry said it had granted the Marinera, previously flagged in Guyana, a “temporary permit to sail under the Russian Federation flag” on Christmas Eve. It added that “no state has the right to use force against vessels duly registered in the jurisdictions of other states” under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
US European Command announced the seizure of the Marinera for “violations of US sanctions”, before it was then revealed that another sanctioned Venezuela-linked tanker was seized by the US. The Sophia was captured during a “pre-dawn” raid in the Caribbean on Wednesday, according to US Southern Command. In a social media post on the back-to-back operations, US secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem said both ships were “either last docked in Venezuela or en route to it”.
The US military has now handed control of the Marinera to law enforcement officials, a US official told the Associated Press.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the crew of the tanker is subject to prosecution.
Ahead of the Marinera’s seizure, Kremlin adviser and former Russian deputy foreign minister Andrei Fedorov told the BBC that such a move would “be considered as [an] attack on Russia, and it could lead to very critical or maybe even crisis situation in relations between Russia and US”.
The seizures on Wednesday come after US forces apprehended at least two tankers carrying Venezuelan oil in international waters towards the end of last year. Meanwhile, at least 33 Venezuelan vessels have been targeted by the US since early September in attacks that are believed to have killed 112 people, justified by claims of their drug trafficking into the US.
Former deputy head of Nato Rose Gottemoeller has accused Mr Trump of wanting “to end what has been the post-Second World War law-governed order enshrined in the UN Charter”. Speaking to The Independent, she also warned Europe could face a future without US nuclear deterrence amid the US president’s vow to take Greenland.
Sir Keir Starmer has been urged by senior British military figures to be much tougher in resisting Mr Trump’s threat to annex the strategic, mineral-rich island, which is part of Denmark, a Nato country.
Former defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace accused the US president of attempting to “thieve” Greenland’s mineral assets, while former Nato deputy supreme allied commander General Sir Richard Shirreff said the British government “ducks and weaves” instead of taking a firm stance on defending the territory.
But on Tuesday, Sir Keir and other European leaders spoke out publicly over the threats, declaring that they will “not stop defending” Greenland’s territorial integrity.
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