French President Emmanuel Macron has accused an oil tanker off the nation's coast of "very serious wrongdoings," linking it to Russia's "shadow fleet" which is reportedly circumventing Western sanctions imposed over the war in Ukraine.
The vessel, whose current status remains unclear, was previously sighted off the Danish coast last week, where European naval experts suggested its potential involvement in drone flights.
Prosecutors in Brest have since launched a judicial investigation into the crew's "refusal to cooperate" and their "failure to justify the nationality of the vessel".
According to Marine Traffic monitoring, the tanker departed the Russian oil terminal in Primorsk, near Saint Petersburg, on 20 September.
After sailing past Denmark, it has remained off the French western port of Saint-Nazaire since Sunday.
Mr Macron indicated that French authorities had intervened, stating: "I think it’s a good thing that this work has been done and that we’ve been able to stop it."
“There were some very serious wrongdoings made by this crew, which is why there are legal proceedings in the case,” Macron said on the sidelines of a summit of European Union leaders in Copenhagen, Denmark. He didn't elaborate and France’s maritime authorities did not immediately respond to a request for details.
Macron said the incident highlights “the existence and the reality of a phenomenon that we have been describing and denouncing for a long time” that is “these notorious shadow fleet” that represents tens of billions of euros for Russia’s budget and finances an estimated 40 per cent of Russia’s war effort.
Macron said between 600 and 1,000 ships are transporting Russian oil and gas despite Western sanctions.
The tanker known as “Pushpa” or “Boracay,” whose name has changed several times, was sailing under the flag of Benin and appears on a list of ships targeted by EU sanctions against Russia.
