
The French Navy seized a Russian oil tanker during an operation carried out offshore in the Atlantic "with the support of several partners, including the United Kingdom."
President Emmanuel Macron announced the incident today in a post on X. “It is unacceptable,” he wrote, “that ships evade international sanctions, violate maritime law and finance the war that Russia has waged against Ukraine for more than four years,” the French president wrote in a post accompanied by images of the seizure.
This is the fourth such operation carried out by France, which is engaged in the fight against Russia's shadow fleet. But the reaction from the Kremlin was furious.
"We consider such actions to be illegal, they border on international piracy. We strongly disagree that they are being carried out in full compliance with international law. As you know, Russia is taking a number of measures to ensure the safety of its cargo and will continue to do so, taking into account this negative experience," said Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman.
The Russian oil tanker that French President Emmanuel Macron announced today was seized in the Atlantic waters is called the Tagor and its captain is Russian. The Russian embassy in Paris clarified this detail. Meanwhile, the war between Ukraine and Russia has not stopped.
Kiev reports 3 dead and 60 wounded in attacks across the country, while Moscow also claims to have suffered acts of war. Russia launched a record number of long-range drones against Ukraine in May, according to an AFP analysis of daily data from the Ukrainian Air Force. The analysis found that Russia launched 8,150 long-range drones and more than 200 missiles during the month, surpassing the previous record set a month earlier.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an exclusive interview with CBS News that his government has evidence that Russia kidnapped Ukrainian children and trained them to fight against other Ukrainians. It's a charge that the International Criminal Court has ruled may constitute a war crime.