The French Navy on Friday seized the Deyna, a crude tanker accused of belonging to Russia's sanctions-busting "shadow fleet", French President Emmanuel Macron wrote in a post on social media platform X on Friday.
"We are staying the course," Macron wrote. "The war in Iran will not deter France from supporting Ukraine, where Russia's war of aggression continues."
Local officials told Reuters that the French Navy boarded the Mozambique-flagged oil tanker in the Western Mediterranean after the vessel, sailing from the Russian port of Murmansk, was suspected of flying a false flag.
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The operation was carried out with British allies, the French Mediterranean prefecture said.
"These ships, which circumvent international sanctions and violate the law of the sea, are war profiteers. They seek to reap profits and finance Russia's war effort," Macron wrote.
Russia has been accused of using a flotilla of ageing oil tankers of opaque ownership to get around Western restrictions on its lucrative crude exports imposed over its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow has repeatedly accused the unilateral seizure of vessels carrying Russian cargo as "piracy".
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters and AFP)
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