Showdown in the North Atlantic: Russia sends 'warships and submarine' to Venezuelan tanker hunted by US and British forces
The tanker managed to evade Donald Trump’s Venezuela blockade and is believed to be sailing between Scotland and Iceland in a bid to flee to Moscow
Russia has deployed naval surface vessels and submarines into the North Atlantic to protect a sanctioned oil tanker being pursued by US forces, sharply raising the risk of a military stand-off at sea.
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The tanker, now sailing under the Russian flag as Marinera, was last believed to be operating between Scotland and Iceland. It is not currently carrying oil but has a long history of transporting sanctioned Venezuelan crude and has been under sustained US surveillance for weeks.
As LBC reported yesterday, American officials have confirmed US forces are preparing to board the vessel and would prefer to seize it rather than sink it. The tanker’s sudden Russian naval escort appears designed to deter that move.
The ship was formerly known as Bella 1. Last month, the US Coast Guard attempted to board it in the Caribbean under a warrant linked to sanctions breaches and allegations it had shipped Iranian oil. Instead, the vessel abruptly changed course, renamed itself, reflagged from Guyana to Russia and headed north across the Atlantic.
Donald Trump ordered a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela in December, a policy Caracas condemned as “theft”.
In the run-up to the US operation that captured former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro over the weekend, Trump repeatedly accused Venezuela of using maritime routes to traffic drugs into the United States.
Read more: US warplanes and elite strike force flock to UK bases as Venezuela-linked tanker seizure looms
Read more: British jets join hunt for Venezuelan oil tanker in North Atlantic 'off British Isles'
As Marinera approached Europe over the weekend, US military activity around the UK intensified. Flight tracking data shows US Navy P-8 Poseidon surveillance aircraft operating from RAF Mildenhall closely monitoring the tanker as it crossed the Atlantic, potentially skirting Ireland’s exclusive economic zone around 230 miles offshore.
Around ten US military transport aircraft and helicopters have also arrived in the UK in recent days.
AIS tracking data, which can be spoofed or manipulated, placed the tanker roughly 2,000km west of continental Europe on Tuesday. Weather conditions, distance from land and the presence of Russian naval assets are all thought to be complicating any boarding operation.
Russia’s foreign ministry said it was “monitoring with concern” what it described as disproportionate US and Nato attention.
“Our vessel is sailing in international waters of the North Atlantic under the state flag of the Russian Federation and in full compliance with international maritime law,” it said, accusing Western states of hypocrisy over freedom of navigation.
Maritime analysts say the reflagging is unlikely to stop US action. Dimitris Ampatzidis, senior risk and compliance analyst at maritime intelligence firm Kpler, said that enforcement decisions hinge on a vessel’s IMO number, ownership networks and sanctions history, not its name or painted flag.
Switching to the Russian registry, he said, may increase diplomatic friction but does not provide legal protection.
Any US military operation launched from or near the UK would be expected to be coordinated with London. The Ministry of Defence declined to comment, saying it does not discuss the military activities of other nations.
US officials have suggested the operation could mirror last month’s seizure of The Skipper, when US Marines and special operations forces worked with the Coast Guard to take control of a tanker linked to sanctioned Venezuelan and Iranian oil exports.
The confrontation comes days after the US stunned the international community by extracting Maduro from Caracas during a high-intensity operation that included strikes in the capital.
With Russian naval units now physically interposed between US forces and a sanctioned tanker, the standoff has shifted from sanctions enforcement into far more dangerous territory.