Tag: France

On Friday the French authorities, with British Royal Navy support, boarded and seized the tanker the MV Deyna which was sailing from Murmansk to Port Said. It was off the coast of Algeria in the western Mediterranean at the time of the boarding.

The MV Deyna is a designated vessel under the EU’s Russian sanctions and a specified ship under the UK’s Russian sanctions.

The vessel is registered in Mozambique and said to be carrying Russian crude.

According to data from Vesselfinder.com the tanker is now off the southern coast of France at Fos-sur-Mer.

The same website indicates that it left its last port on 1 March. If this date is right, and the vessel was carrying Russian crude, then it would have been benefitting from the US sanctions waiver for Russian crude that was “on the water” as of 12 March at the time that it was seized.

This serves as a reminder, if one were needed, of the complexities of navigating the interlocking and overlapping sanctions regimes that are in place.

Our page tracking such seizures has been updated.

Further to our earlier post on the French seizure of the “shadow fleet” tanker “Boracay” off western France in September 2025, it is now being reported that the trial of the captain is due to commence on Monday.

The trial is taking place in absentia, with the captain Chen Zhangjie – a Chinese national – not attending the trial in the town of Brest.

The charges allege that the Captain refused to comply with a lawful order from the French Navy to allow the inspection of the vessel.

Mr Zhangjie is represented in the trial, and it is being reported that the defence will include arguments that French law and French jurisdiction do not apply.

After seizing the oil tanker the “Grinch” in international waters last week, the vessel is now anchored off Foss-sur-Mer in the south of France.

The captain of the vessel, an Indian national, has been detained by the French authorities pending further investigations. It is being reported that one part of the investigation being conducted by the Maritime Gendarmerie’s Investigation Unit in Toulon and the Marseille Ship Safety Centre, is charges of failure to fly a valid flag.

Further to our earlier post from October 2025, this is not the first such seizure, with the French authorities seizing the vessel the Boracay off the west coast of France. In that case the vessel was allowed to depart and the captain was released without charge,

It has been widely reported (e.g. here and here) that the French military boarded and seized control of an oil tanker reputed to to be part of the “shadow fleet”.

The vessel, the “Boracay” has been sanctioned by the EU and the UK. It is alleged that the crew failed to provide information to authorities on the nationality of the vessel or otherwise comply with orders.

It has now also been reported that the vessel has now continued on its voyage and the captain has been released.