Today’s Morning Jolt notes the approximate location of the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and its carrier group in the eastern Mediterranean – capable of protecting Cyprus and other regional allies from Iranian strikes, but some distance away from the Persian Gulf for any potential escort duties.
To their credit, the French Navy is keeping busy, as French president Emmanuel Macron announced this morning:
This morning in the Mediterranean, the French Navy intercepted and boarded another vessel from the shadow fleet, the Deyna. The war involving Iran will not deflect France from its support for Ukraine, where Russia’s war of aggression continues unabated. These vessels, which evade international sanctions and violate the law of the sea, are profiteers of war. They line their pockets while helping finance Russia’s war effort. We will not allow it.
Meanwhile, two other Russian oil tankers are on their way to Cuba, in defiance of the Trump administration’s restrictions.
The tanker Sea Horse is one of the vessels making its way to Cuba, according to maritime intelligence firm Windward. The Hong Kong-flagged ship is estimated to be carrying around 190,000 barrels of Russian gasoil and tracking suggests it could be set to deliver its cargo in the coming days.
The tanker has been engaged in deceptive shipping practices, an analysis published Wednesday by Windward found, including switching off its location transponders (or AIS “spoofing”) during oil transfer, and it lacks Western insurance, which Windward says indicates potential sanctions circumvention.
A second Russian-flagged oil tanker, the sanctioned Anatoly Kolodkin, is also thought to be on its way to Cuba carrying 730,000 barrels of crude oil, maritime analytics firm Kpler said Wednesday, according to AFP.
The shipments represent an act of defiance to the U.S., given that Washington has threatened to impose tariffs on any country that supplies it with oil. The Kremlin has previously shrugged off Trump’s tariff threats, pointing out that Washington and Moscow “don’t have much trade right now.”
We will have to wait and see what the Trump administration is willing to do to deter that delivery, or what consequences it decides to impose for making that delivery. (Washington and Moscow in a dispute over a blockade of Cuba… why does that sound so familiar?)
It’s been a busy week for Russian ships. European governments are increasingly worried about one that has been drifting out of control for nearly two weeks, drifting between Malta and the Italian islands of Lampedusa and Linosa in the Mediterranean while remaining in international waters; environmentalists say the abandoned ship is a “floating time bomb.”
The Russian gas carrier Arctic Metagaz, damaged by a series of explosions, has been drifting uncontrollably in the Mediterranean Sea for nearly two weeks, causing growing alarm among coastal states and environmental activists.
Moscow claims that the vessel, which belongs to an authorised “shadow fleet”, was attacked by Ukrainian maritime drones. Kiev has not commented on these claims.
Aerial photos taken after the attack show a giant breach several dozen metres wide near the waterline. The scale of the destruction was so great that Libyan authorities mistakenly declared the ship a wreck on 4 March.
…According to Russian reports, pops continue to be heard on board, gas emissions have been recorded, roll has increased, and localised fires have broken out in some compartments. At the time of the crew evacuation, 450 tonnes of fuel oil, 250 tonnes of diesel fuel and significant volumes of natural gas remained in the tanks, which significantly increases the risk of an emergency development up to explosion.
The Russian “shadow fleet” doesn’t seem all that hidden these days.