France has opened an investigation into a Russian-linked oil tanker anchored off Saint-Nazaire on the Atlantic coast. The vessel is suspected of being part of Moscow’s “shadow fleet” and has been named in Denmark’s inquiry into mystery drone flights that disrupted air traffic last month.
The 244-metre tanker, called Boracay but also known as Pushpa and Kiwala, has been anchored near French territorial waters off the Saint-Nazaire wind farm for several days.
It sails under a Benin flag and left the Russian port of Primorsk, near Saint Petersburg, on 20 September.
The Brest prosecutor’s office said it opened the investigation after a report from the navy.
Prosecutor Stephane Kellenberger told the French news agency AFP the probe concerns the crew’s “failure to justify the nationality of the vessel” and its “refusal to cooperate”.
A representative of the Atlantic Maritime Prefecture told AFP it had “recently filed a report with the public prosecutor in Brest” concerning the Boracay, which is “suspected of being in violation of the law”.
An investigation is underway, the representative added, declining to release any details.
NATO faces new threat as climate helps submarines slip beneath sonar
Drone link
The Boracay’s name also appears in Denmark’s investigation into drone flights that forced temporary closures at airports in Copenhagen and Aalborg between 22 and 25 September.
Danish authorities imposed a ban on civilian drone flights until Friday. Drones have been sighted across Denmark since 22 September, including above military sites.
Danish media reported that the tanker passed through Danish waters during that period.
According to specialist publication The Maritime Executive, the Boracay and several other vessels could have been used either as launch platforms or as decoys for the drones.
France and Japan hold joint military exercises in signal to China, Russia
EU sanctions
The European Union has sanctioned the Boracay. Brussels accuses it of transporting Russian crude oil and petroleum products using “irregular and high-risk maritime practices”.
Britain has also imposed sanctions, accusing the vessel of having participated in activities seeking to “destabilise Ukraine” or to support the Russian government’s oil trade.
The French navy has been monitoring the tanker off the Saint-Nazaire wind farm, and a patrol ship has been sent to watch it, the navy confirmed to local media ICI Loire Océan.
Marine Traffic data show the tanker left Primorsk on 20 September and was due to arrive in Vadinar in northwestern India on 20 October.
Turkey flexes naval muscles as neighbours fear escalating arms race
Clandestine fleet
Since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, Russia has been accused of using a clandestine “shadow fleet” of ageing tankers with opaque ownership and shifting identities to get around Western sanctions on its oil exports.
Le Figaro reported that a French warship tracked the Boracay along the Brittany coast before it anchored off Loire-Atlantique.
French authorities have not said whether the Brest investigation is directly linked to the Danish drone incidents.
