01:11Secure. Search team's report all clear. Command, what's our status?
01:17In the dead of night, Royal Marine Commandos fast-roped onto a 244-meter oil tanker in the English Channel
01:26and made history.
01:27This wasn't a drill. It was Britain's first-ever seizure of a vessel from Russia's so-called shadow fleet, and
01:35it sends a message that goes far beyond one ship.
01:38The vessel is called the Smirtos. On paper, it sails under a Cameroon flag, owned by shell companies in the
01:47Seychelles and Singapore.
01:48In reality, it's been sanctioned by the UK, the EU, Ukraine, Canada, and Switzerland for one job, smuggling Russian crude
01:58oil past Western sanctions.
02:00Just before dawn on Sunday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer posted on X,
02:05I directed our armed forces to intercept a shadow fleet oil tanker attempting to pass through the English Channel.
02:12The boarding lasted six hours. Marines, National Crime Agency officers, RAF aircraft, helicopters, Royal Navy ships.
02:21The Smirtos is now anchored off England's south coast, going nowhere.
02:27So, what exactly is the shadow fleet?
02:30After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the G7 slapped a $60 per barrel price cap on Russian oil.
02:39The goal? Starve the Kremlin's war machine.
02:41Russia's answer? Build a parallel navy of hundreds, possibly over a thousand, aging, underinsured tankers that operate in the gray
02:51zone of maritime law.
02:53They switch off their GPS tracking.
02:55They transfer oil at sea, ship to ship, in the middle of the night.
02:59They register in obscure jurisdictions, shuffle ownership through layers of anonymous companies,
03:05and sail under flags of convenience from countries with little enforcement power.
03:10The result? Russia moves an estimated 65 to 75 percent of its seaborne oil exports through this fleet,
03:18generating tens of billions of dollars a year to fund the war in Ukraine.
03:23Every tanker that gets through is fuel, quite literally, for the conflict.
03:28This interception is a first and a signal.
03:32Until now, shadow fleet vessels have largely moved through international waters with impunity,
03:38boarding one in UK waters, physically with armed commandos, is a major escalation of enforcement.
03:45It says the English Channel is no free pass.
03:48Britain has been quietly supporting US-led operations against other sanctioned vessels,
03:53but seizing one yourself, in your own backyard, that's a different statement entirely.
03:59Officials are calling it a direct strike on Putin's war economy.
04:02Not everyone is applauding.
04:05Some critics are pointing out the irony.
04:07The same channel where small migrant boats have struggled to get intercepted for years
04:11was secured in hours for a tanker operation.
04:15Expect that debate to intensify.
04:19What happens to the Smirtos next is still unfolding.
04:22Cargo, destination, legal proceedings, all under investigation.
04:26But the UK government has made clear, this could be the first of many.
04:31One tanker seized, a thousand more still at sea.
04:35The shadow fleet isn't finished, but it just got a lot harder to ignore.
04:45Deck secure.
04:46Search teams report all clear.
04:49Command, what's our status?
04:50Passes!
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