BBC Verify suggested<\/a> that dozens of sanctioned vessels sailed through the English Channel in the weeks after the legal mechanism was identified in January.<\/p>\nMinisters are keen to emphasise the threat still posed by Russia, despite much of Whitehall\u2019s attention being focused on the war in the Middle East in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
Sir Keir Starmer said the move would starve \u201cPutin\u2019s war machine of the dirty profits that fund his barbaric campaign\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added that western nations were facing a \u201cwar on two fronts,\u201d pointing to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine as well as the conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
The approval to board the vessels came as the prime minister arrived in Finland ahead of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) summit in Helsinki, a military coalition of northern European nations. Starmer will address the summit on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Royal Navy personnel have supported countries including Finland, Sweden and Estonia with the monitoring and tracking of shadow fleet vessels in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
No UK military personnel have yet boarded any vessels but senior government figures are keen for that to change.<\/p>\n
Specialist military units have been undertaking training in recent weeks to wargame different scenarios, including how to deal with armed crews.<\/p>\n
That training is understood to be complete and Ministry of Defence officials are working on the assumption that the first operation of this type will happen sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n
Those involved could include the Special Boat Service and the Royal Marines, depending on the level of resistance expected from crews aboard the shadow vessels.<\/p>\n
The government believes around 75% of Russia\u2019s crude oil is transported by ageing ships and has imposed sanctions on 544 vessels thought to be in the shadow fleet.<\/p>\n
Ship-tracking technology can be used to identify which sanctioned vessels are headed for UK waters weeks before they arrive.<\/p>\n
Military planners and defence officials are understood to be monitoring these tracking systems to identify which vessels will be the first to be boarded and detained.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year British armed forces assisted US troops in seizing the Marinera oil tanker, which American officials accused of breaking sanctions by carrying oil for Venezuela, Russia and Iran.<\/p>\n
Ministers then began exploring how British forces could lead similar operations against sanctioned vessels travelling through UK waters.<\/p>\n
Government lawyers identified the Sanctions and Money Laundering Act from 2018 as a legal means to allow the use of military force.<\/p>\n
Defence Secretary John Healey and Attorney General Lord Hermer met their counterparts in the Joint Expeditionary Force in recent weeks to go through the precise legal implications for different types of scenarios.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump eased US sanctions preventing other countries from buying Russian oil and petroleum already loaded on vessels at sea in order to contain soaring energy prices sparked by the US-Israel war with Iran.<\/p>\n
Asked whether US action undermined UK efforts, Healey told the Today programme that his priority was to \u201cprotect\u201d British interests and allies in the Middles East, not to \u201ccriticise or comment on actions of the US president\u201d.<\/p>\n
Speaking ahead of the JEF summit, Starmer said the world was \u201cincreasingly volatile and dangerous\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cPutin is rubbing his hands at the war in the Middle East because he thinks higher oil prices will let him line his pockets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re going after his shadow fleet even harder, not just keeping Britain safe but starving Putin\u2019s war machine of the dirty profits that fund his barbaric campaign in Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Conservative Party spokesperson said: \u201cAny effort to keep sanctioned ships out of our waters is important.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
British forces are now \u201cready to act\u201d to board and detain ships in Russia\u2019s so-called shadow fleet in UK waters, the defence secretary has said. Russia has been accused of operating ships without a valid national flag to avoid sanctions on oil and help fund its war in Ukraine. Ministers identified a legal basis in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135655\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}