France just struck a major blow against Russia’s shadow fleet without firing a single shot. In a dramatic Atlantic operation, French forces intercepted the sanctioned tanker Tagor, exposing a secret network that helps fund Putin’s war in Ukraine. With support from the U.K. and praise from President Zelenskyy, this seizure could signal a new phase in the fight against Russia’s illicit oil trade. Discover how France may have changed the game forever.
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SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/5KMPxDWk
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00:00It's the secret network that is the foundation of Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
00:04Shady ships are sailing all over the world,
00:06shipping illicit oil to buyers and funneling money back into the war machine.
00:11It's Russia's most valuable weapon,
00:13but France just showed the entire world how to dismantle that weapon
00:16and it did it without firing a single shot.
00:19Deep in the Atlantic, France just did something so big
00:22that it's left Putin seething.
00:25A shadow fleet tanker is done.
00:27France became the hunter that Ukraine always needed it to be
00:30and if President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has his way,
00:34this will just be the start of something bigger.
00:36It all started on the morning of May 31st.
00:39During the early hours of the day,
00:41a ship named the Tagore made its way through international waters.
00:45At a glance, the Tagore would seem similar to any other tanker.
00:48It wasn't.
00:49Digging below the ship's murky surface
00:51reveals that it's one of many that are a part of the Shadow Fleet,
00:54a network of Russian ships that sail under the flags of other nations
00:58to take Russian oil to other countries.
01:01That's precisely what the Tagore was doing.
01:03The ship sailed under the Cameroonian flag
01:05as it continued its journey toward the city of Limbeh,
01:08which is also in Cameroon.
01:09Again, nothing seems to be wrong with that.
01:12But the Tagore doesn't belong to Cameroon.
01:14It's linked to Mohamed Hossein Shamkani,
01:17who is a petroleum shipping magnate
01:19and has been suspected of carrying both Russian and Iranian oil
01:21to help the regimes in both countries to skirt sanctions.
01:25Shamkani also happens to be the son of Ali Shamkani,
01:28who was an advisor to the former Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
01:32before he met his end when he came face to face with a bunker-busting bomb
01:36during the first 24 hours of Operation Epic Fury in Iran.
01:39The Tagore isn't a regular oil tanker.
01:42It's a ship that needed to be taken out of commission as soon as possible.
01:46As the Tagore sailed across the Atlantic Ocean,
01:49its crew must have thought that it had managed to pull off another fast one.
01:52Then it happened.
01:53Or more accurately, France happened.
01:56A French ship approached and the Tagore's game was rumbled.
02:00French sailors boarded the vessel,
02:01arrested the captain and took the vessel into custody.
02:04But that doesn't tell the full story.
02:06The details of the operation are mostly being kept under wraps.
02:10However, there are bits and pieces of information that are starting to emerge.
02:13According to the Kyiv Post,
02:15we now know more than just the Tagore's destination.
02:17We know where it came from.
02:19The vessel was sailing from the northwestern Russian city of Murmansk,
02:23which immediately signifies that it wasn't a Cameroonian vessel,
02:26despite where it was heading.
02:27This ship was carrying illicit cargo from Russia.
02:30The French Atlantic Maritime Prefecture has also revealed
02:33that the interception of the ship took place deep into international waters,
02:37over 400 nautical miles west of the coast of the French peninsula of Brittany.
02:42Russia's shady ship had 23 crew members at the time the vessel was captured,
02:46and they didn't respond to the orders that were given by the French crew
02:49that would eventually detain them.
02:51That's standard practice for a Shadow Fleet vessel.
02:53If you're caught, keep quiet.
02:55Putin doesn't need anybody blabbing about Russia's secret oil shipments.
02:59So that's what we know about France's role in this capture.
03:02But there's a little more to the story.
03:04None of this would have been possible if France hadn't taken some inspiration
03:06from the Beatles and gotten by with a little help from its friends.
03:10Specifically, another nation that has been a thorn in Putin's side
03:13since he launched his Ukraine invasion offered a hand to France in this operation,
03:17or should we say a helicopter?
03:19The BBC reports that the UK's Ministry of Defence has confirmed
03:22that it provided a chopper to help France capture the Targour.
03:26Again, details are thin on the ground.
03:28We know that no shots were fired in the seizure of the ship.
03:30All that the UK has revealed is that the chopper was previously aboard the HMS Somerset,
03:35and it was involved in
03:36tracking and monitoring in support of the French operation.
03:39That makes sense.
03:40A helicopter can hover over a Shadow Fleet vessel for hours,
03:43constantly communicating its position to incoming ships
03:46that wish to detain the offending boat.
03:48That's likely what happened on May 31st.
03:50The UK tracked, and France took it down.
03:53As you'll soon find out,
03:55France is getting pretty efficient at sticking it to Russia's Shadow Fleet.
03:57And it had to be when it came to the Targour,
04:00as the ship is a constant offender.
04:02France has known about it for years,
04:04so have many other nations.
04:05According to Euromide and Press,
04:07the vessel has been under sanctions from the US,
04:09Ukraine, the UK, Switzerland, and the European Union for a long time,
04:13and it's among the many ships that Ukraine's military intelligence lists
04:16as being part of the Shadow Fleet.
04:18It's also sailed under the flag of Guinea before,
04:21which is another shot at any claim that Russia might make
04:23that it's a Cameroonian vessel.
04:25The Targour has also sailed to many countries,
04:27often travelling from Russia's Baltic ports
04:29to places as varied as Thailand,
04:31India, Vietnam, Egypt, Saudi Arabia,
04:33and the United Arab Emirates.
04:35The Targour was an important ship for Russia.
04:37Now it's gone, and Russia is raging.
04:40Putin's favourite mouthpiece, Dmitry Peskov,
04:43has already had plenty to say about what France did on May 31st.
04:46We consider these acts illegal.
04:48They border on international piracy,
04:50Peskov declared before making vague claims that
04:52Russia is taking measures to ensure the safety of its cargo.
04:56Ooh, Dmitry, you just gave the game away.
04:58Remember, this is a Shadow Fleet tanker.
05:00It's supposed to be Cameroonian.
05:01You can't just come out and say that the cargo on board is Russian
05:04unless you want people to know that everything about this ship
05:06and its sailing is illegal.
05:08French President Emmanuel Macron had the perfect response
05:11to Peskov's ranting in a June 1st post on X.
05:13It is unacceptable for ships to circumvent international sanctions,
05:17violate the laws of the sea,
05:18and fund the war that Russia has been waging against Ukraine
05:21for more than four years, Macron said, adding.
05:23These vessels, which fail to adhere to the most basic rules
05:26of maritime navigation,
05:27also pose a threat to the environment and to everyone's safety.
05:31You'll move, Russia.
05:32It'll be interesting to see what Russia is going to do
05:35to ensure the safety of its cargo,
05:37now that the cargo is in France's possession.
05:39So far, all that Russia has done is request information
05:42about the makeup of the crew that took the Targor into custody
05:45while moaning about how it hasn't been notified
05:47about any of the actions that France has taken against the ship.
05:50That's hardly the sort of powerful response
05:52that Peskov implies is coming,
05:54but then that's typical of Russian threats against NATO nations.
05:57Far too much bark and very little bite.
06:00Besides, if Russia wants to get some hints
06:02about what lies in store for the Targor and its crew,
06:04it doesn't need to search too much.
06:05We told you earlier that France is getting pretty efficient
06:08with dealing with Shadow Fleet tankers.
06:10That claim hasn't been pulled out of thin air.
06:11France has a growing track record of this kind of thing
06:14that tells Russia all that it needs to know
06:16about the fate of its illicit ship and its crew.
06:19But before we get deeper into that,
06:20this is a quick reminder that you are watching the military show.
06:23Are you enjoying this video?
06:25Great.
06:25Remember to subscribe to the channel
06:27as we publish videos like this every single day.
06:31Since September 2025,
06:33France has carried out similar boarding operations
06:35against three other Shadow Fleet tankers besides the Targor.
06:38First, there was the Borachai,
06:40which France boarded in September.
06:42That ship was sailing under the flag of Benin,
06:44which is a relatively small West African nation.
06:47As for the ship's captain, he was Chinese.
06:49Something doesn't add up there.
06:51However, the fate of that captain,
06:52who Politico named as Zhangji Chen in a March 30th piece,
06:56reveals what may now lie in store
06:57for whoever was at the helm of the Targor.
06:59In March, French courts convicted Chen
07:02of failing to comply with French authorities
07:04after special forces from the country boarded his ship
07:06as it sailed off the waters of Saint-Nazaire.
07:09The Borachai was carrying about $100 million
07:11of Russian oil at the time
07:13and also had a pair of Russian citizens on board
07:16who Chen would only identify as security agents.
07:19Chen was sentenced to a year in jail
07:21and a fine of around $175,000 for his crime,
07:25though the sentence was passed in absentia.
07:28Still, if Peskov and the Russian embassy
07:29want to know more about what lies in store
07:31for the Targor and its crew,
07:32this sentence offers a pretty solid indication.
07:35The capture of the Borachai seemed to light a fire under France.
07:38A few months later, in January,
07:40France was at it again.
07:41This time, the target was a sailing rotter
07:43and king of sinful sots named the Grinch.
07:46Another Shadow Fleet ship
07:47that was subject to international sanctions,
07:49the Grinch was being sailed by an Indian captain
07:51and he was traveling through the Mediterranean Sea
07:53from the same Momansk port
07:55from which the Targor was sailing.
07:57This time, the Russian vessel was sailing
07:59under the Comoros Islands flag.
08:01It ended up moored and under guard
08:02at a French port close to the city of Marseille.
08:05It appears the Grinch may have been released by France
08:07after its owner paid a multi-million dollar fine.
08:10At least, that's what the Moscow Times suggests,
08:12as it claims that February saw France
08:14release a suspected Shadow Fleet ship
08:16that wasn't the Borachai.
08:18Another of Russia's shady ships
08:19bit the dust in March.
08:21This time, it was a vessel named the Dana,
08:23which was sailing out of, you guessed it,
08:25Momansk,
08:26this time under the flag of Mozambique.
08:29You're probably starting to see a few patterns here,
08:31especially in terms of the ports that Russia uses
08:33and the exploitation of African nations
08:35to try to keep its Shadow Fleet sailing under the radar.
08:38The trickery didn't work for the Dana.
08:39It ended up suffering the same fate
08:41as the two that came before
08:42and the one that France boarded on May 31st.
08:45France has an interesting hit rate going on here.
08:47In 2026, the country has taken a Shadow Fleet tanker
08:50into custody once every two months.
08:52If Zelensky has his way,
08:54France, along with other Western nations
08:56that have sanctioned so many of Russia's shady ships,
08:58will start upping those numbers sooner rather than later.
09:01We'll come back to that in a minute.
09:03Returning to the Targor,
09:04the importance of the seizure of this latest Shadow Fleet ship
09:06is better understood
09:07when you know just why this fleet is so important to Russia.
09:11Ever since Putin invaded Ukraine,
09:13Putin has been building a massive network of tankers
09:15that exist solely to allow Russia to invade the sanctions
09:18that have been implemented by Ukraine's allies.
09:20These aren't top-of-the-line ships.
09:23The criteria for a vessel that makes it into the Shadow Fleet
09:26appear to be that it can still sail
09:27and that it's as cheap as possible.
09:29Piffling concerns related to safety, insurance,
09:32and the prospect of tankers that are, in many cases,
09:34years past their sell-by date, are secondary.
09:36The BBC says that the average age of a Shadow Fleet tanker
09:39is around 20 years
09:40and that most are poorly maintained
09:42due to not having been used for years
09:44before they were sold to Russia.
09:46So that's what Russia is saying.
09:47Rust buckets tasked with transporting
09:49millions of dollars of oil,
09:51floating environmental disasters
09:53that are just waiting to happen.
09:55Putin doesn't care about the quality of the ships,
09:57only that they can carry oil and, by hook or by crook,
10:00get to countries that will buy the oil.
10:02Those two jobs are the reasons
10:03why Russia has invested billions
10:05into building its secret network of shady ships.
10:07Exact numbers are difficult to gather,
10:09which is the entire one.
10:11Russia wants the world to know
10:12as little as possible about these vessels.
10:14In December 2025,
10:16the Center for Strategic and International Studies,
10:18or CSIS,
10:20estimated that the Shadow Fleet encompasses
10:21up to 435 tankers,
10:24with that number growing to 591 ships
10:26when accounting for support ships.
10:28CSIS also estimated
10:30that Putin's nasty naval network
10:32transports around 3.7 million barrels of oil daily,
10:35accounting for 65% of Russia's seaborne oil trade,
10:38and that it generates up to $100 billion
10:40per year in revenue.
10:41It's that last part that matters so much to Putin.
10:44As long as the Shadow Fleet's sales,
10:46tainted oil money flows into Russia
10:48that the Kremlin can tax
10:49to boost its war coffers.
10:51As massive as these CSIS numbers are,
10:53others claim that they just scratch the surface
10:55of the true scale of the Shadow Fleet.
10:57In a November 2025 report,
10:59Maritime News claimed that Russia's fleet
11:01is actually 3,240 vessels large.
11:04If true, that means the Shadow Fleet
11:06is over six times bigger than CSIS estimates.
11:09The Kiev Independent built on this,
11:11noting that the fleet
11:11is supposedly transporting
11:14337 million barrels per month,
11:16which amounts to a little over
11:1711.2 million barrels per day.
11:19Again, that's a long way above the CSIS estimate,
11:21and it would presumably mean
11:23the oil revenue that Russia generates
11:24from its network of ships
11:25is in the hundreds of billions of dollars annually,
11:28rather than topping out at $100 billion.
11:30Whichever set of numbers
11:31most closely reflects reality is immaterial.
11:34The key point to understand here
11:35is that Putin needs the Shadow Fleet.
11:37Without it, the oil lifeline
11:38that keeps his invasion of Ukraine funded
11:40dries up,
11:41which means no more enormous pay packages
11:43for volunteer soldiers
11:44and even less equipment on the front.
11:46Still, when we're talking about numbers
11:48of this size,
11:49France seizing one Shadow Fleet tanker,
11:51no matter how important that tanker is,
11:52seems like small potatoes.
11:54You could look at it that way, for sure.
11:56But the bigger story here
11:57lies in the aftermath.
11:58What France has done with this seizure,
12:00and those that came before,
12:01is show Russia that it isn't playing around
12:03with the Shadow Fleet.
12:04If France finds a shady tanker,
12:07it will do what it can to capture it.
12:08The knock-on effect
12:09is that routes that Russia thought were safe
12:11can no longer be sailed.
12:12Captains who are willing to take the payoff
12:14when the enforcement of sanctions
12:15was weak enough
12:16to make the juice worth the squeeze
12:17will think twice about sailing
12:19when they know a trip to a French prison
12:21may lie in their future.
12:22It's all about increasing the cost
12:24of keeping the Shadow Fleet running,
12:26be that by making Russia's decrepit tankers
12:28sail longer and more dangerous routes,
12:30or by ensuring that fewer sailors
12:31are willing to step on board the ships
12:33in the first place.
12:34The more risk that is created,
12:36the bigger the bite's being taken out
12:37of the revenue that the Shadow Fleet generates.
12:39Still a lot more can be done,
12:41and that's the message
12:42that Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky
12:43delivered in the aftermath
12:45of the Tagore's capture.
12:46Zelensky spoke about the capture
12:48during his June 1st evening address
12:49to Ukraine's people, stating,
12:51There has been another interception
12:53of a Russian tanker.
12:54Thank you, France.
12:55It's important that Europe takes a strong step
12:57and modernizes legislation
12:58so that such tankers can not only be stopped,
13:00but also seized.
13:02Ukraine appreciates the hard work,
13:04but Zelensky is right.
13:05The response to Russia's Shadow Fleet
13:06needs to be stepped up
13:08if it's going to put a serious dent
13:09into Putin's ability
13:10to use his secretive network
13:12to skirt sanctions.
13:13New legislation will help.
13:15Russia would complain about it,
13:16but what else is new?
13:17And it's not like Russia has a leg to stand on
13:19when it comes to passing legislation
13:21that gives itself permission
13:22to harm other countries.
13:23It was only in mid-May
13:24that the Russian state Duma
13:25approved a law that allows Putin
13:27to invade any country
13:28to protect Russian citizens abroad.
13:30The language in this law
13:32is broad enough
13:32to basically give Putin carte blanche
13:34to use the Russian armed forces
13:36against any nation
13:37that even so much as arrests
13:38a Russian citizen.
13:39In the face of that,
13:41Zelensky calls for Western nations
13:42to pass laws allowing them
13:43to confiscate Russian cargo and tankers
13:46completely makes sense.
13:47In the face of that,
13:48Zelensky's calls for Western nations
13:50to pass laws allowing them
13:51to confiscate Russian cargo and tankers
13:53completely makes sense.
13:54It would be an escalation,
13:56but it would also be a move
13:56that sends a definitive message to Putin
13:58that he no longer gets to have things
14:00go his way
14:00with his sanctions skirting shadowfully.
14:03For Ukraine,
14:04France's latest seizure
14:05should be a stepping stone
14:06to greater things
14:07rather than a high point
14:08of the sanctions campaign.
14:09And if the West steps up
14:11and gets even more serious,
14:12Putin will be in real trouble.
14:14Ukraine is already doing everything
14:16that it can
14:16to stop the flow of illicit oil
14:18out of Russia
14:18with its flying sanctions.
14:20CNN reports
14:21that the period between January and May
14:22has seen Ukraine attack 15
14:24of Russia's oil refineries
14:26with long-range drones,
14:27knocking out 40%
14:28of the country's refining capacity
14:30in the process.
14:31Those strikes are being accompanied
14:32by attacks on Russian oil terminals,
14:34with the clear intention being
14:35to stop Shadow Fleet vessels
14:37from loading up and shipping out.
14:39All of the ingredients
14:40of a Shadow Fleet crushing strategy
14:41are available.
14:43Ukraine is hitting Russian oil
14:44at its source,
14:45and its strikes are decreasing
14:46the use of the ports
14:47that those ships rely on
14:48to load their oil.
14:49France has just shown us
14:50what the next step should be,
14:52more enforcement on the sea.
14:54While Ukraine hits the source,
14:55the West should tackle the ships
14:56that managed to make it out of Russia.
14:58Putin's supposedly unstoppable network
15:00of shady ships would be halted,
15:02and as for Russia's oil lifeline,
15:04it would be choked off,
15:05crippling the Russian army
15:06in the process.
15:07France just laid down the blueprint
15:09for the rest of the West,
15:10and it did it
15:11without firing a single shot.
15:13Ukraine is tackling
15:14the Shadow Fleet too,
15:15only it takes a more direct approach.
15:17As France seizes,
15:18Ukraine strikes Russia's
15:20secret tankers,
15:20and now Ukraine's reach
15:22has expanded as far as
15:23the Mediterranean.
15:24Secret bases in Libya
15:25and covert operations
15:26in international waters
15:28are part of Ukraine's
15:29new approach to dealing
15:30with the Shadow Fleet,
15:31and you can find out
15:32all about both
15:32by watching our video.
15:34And if you enjoyed this video,
15:35make sure that you are subscribed
15:36to The Military Show
15:37to see more of our coverage
15:39of the West's attempts
15:40to aid Ukraine
15:40in taking down Putin
15:42once and for all.
15:43And thanks for watching.
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