The U.S. seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker that was being shadowed by a Russian submarine on Wednesday, after a more than two-week-long pursuit across the Atlantic as part of a U.S. "blockade" of Venezuelan oil exports, two U.S. officials told
Reuters.
This appeared to be the first time in recent memory that the U.S. military has seized a Russian-flagged vessel.
The operation took place after the tanker, originally known as the Bella-1, slipped through a U.S. maritime blockade of sanctioned tankers in the Caribbean and rebuffed U.S. Coast Guard efforts to board it. The seizure effort was first reported by Reuters.
In a post on X, the U.S. military's European Command said the Trump administration had seized the vessel for violating U.S. sanctions.
"The blockade of sanctioned and illicit Venezuelan oil remains in FULL EFFECT — anywhere in the world," U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in reply to that post.
The U.S. officials, who were speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday's operation near Iceland was being carried out by the Coast Guard and U.S. military.
The Coast Guard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The officials said Russian military vessels were in the general vicinity of the operation, including a Russian submarine. It was unclear how close the vessels were to the operation, but there were no indications of a confrontation between U.S. and Russian military forces.
There was no immediate comment from Moscow. However, Russian state media outlet RT published an image of a helicopter hovering near the ship.
