US seizes Russian-flagged tanker linked to Venezuelan oil, Moscow protests

US special forces have seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic after a prolonged pursuit, prompting a strong protest from Moscow and raising fresh tensions over Washington’s enforcement of sanctions on Venezuelan oil shipments.

The US military’s European Command said the tanker, Marinera — previously known as Bella-1 — was taken into custody on Wednesday for breaching US sanctions. Defence secretary Pete Hegseth said the action underscored that Washington’s blockade on illicit Venezuelan oil exports remained in force worldwide.

According to US officials, the vessel is part of a so-called “shadow fleet” used to transport oil for sanctioned states including Venezuela, Russia and Iran. The tanker had evaded earlier efforts by the US Coast Guard to board it and had slipped through a US maritime blockade targeting vessels linked to Venezuela.

Russian state media reported that American forces boarded the tanker from a helicopter, publishing images of the aircraft hovering above the ship. An earlier attempt to seize the vessel during stormy conditions had failed, according to unnamed sources cited by Russian broadcasters.

The tanker had been tracked by US forces since last month and was intercepted as it neared Iceland’s exclusive economic zone, shipping data showed. While a Russian submarine and a warship were reportedly operating in the area at the time, there were no indications of a direct confrontation between US and Russian forces.

Russia’s Transport Ministry condemned the seizure, arguing it violated international maritime law. Citing the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the ministry said freedom of navigation applied on the high seas and that no state had the right to use force against a vessel registered under another country’s flag. It added that contact with the tanker was lost after US naval forces boarded it in international waters, beyond any state’s territorial limits.

The Russian foreign ministry said the ship was receiving what it described as disproportionate attention from US and NATO militaries, despite its “peaceful status”. Moscow has not confirmed whether it deployed naval assets to escort the vessel during the pursuit.

The Marinera was sanctioned by the US in 2024 for allegedly smuggling oil cargo on behalf of a company linked to Lebanon’s Hezbollah. In December, it refused a US Coast Guard request to board while in the Caribbean and instead sailed across the Atlantic.

The seizure marks the latest step in President Donald Trump’s intensified crackdown on oil tankers tied to Venezuela. The move follows the recent capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, after which Trump said the US would take control of Venezuela’s oil sector and develop its reserves. He has also claimed that Venezuela would transfer tens of millions to billions of barrels of sanctioned oil to the United States.

In a separate development, US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said American forces had also seized another vessel, the supertanker M Sophia, in international waters near the Caribbean. The Panama-flagged ship, which is under US sanctions, had reportedly departed Venezuelan waters earlier this month while transporting oil to China with its tracking transponder switched off.

Officials said both vessels had either recently docked in Venezuela or were heading there. Analysts described the coordinated seizures as a significant escalation in Washington’s global enforcement of sanctions against Venezuela’s oil trade.

With IANS inputs