The Boracay, a tanker under Western sanctions and facing a French investigation as part of Russia’s suspected “shadow fleet”, has unexpectedly departed its anchorage off western France, raising questions after a recent raid by French Navy commandos.
MarineTraffic data showed the vessel heading southwest down the Bay of Biscay at cruise speed on Friday morning.
Its departure remains unexplained, with neither local French maritime authorities nor the Brest prosecutor’s office, investigating the Benin-flagged vessel’s nationality, responding to requests for comment.
Before its detention, the Boracay was destined for India’s Vadinar port, home to a Nayara Energy refinery, though its current course is unconfirmed.
French President Emmanuel Macron stated on Thursday that the ship’s detention was part of a European strategy to combat oil revenues funding Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Macron also said it was unclear whether the vessel was involved in drone incursions in Denmark last week, which shut Danish airports close to the route the ship had been sailing from the Baltic to the North Sea.
French police arrested the captain and first officer as they investigated whether it was involved in last week’s drone incursions in Denmark.
The captain has since been charged with one count of refusing to follow instructions from the French navy and told to attend a court hearing in the northern coastal city of Brest next February. The second captain was released without charge after being questioned.
French soldiers boarded the ship several days ago at the request of prosecutors who suspected wrongdoing. The prosecutor’s office in Brest previously said an investigation was opened into the crew’s “refusal to cooperate” and “failure to justify the nationality of the vessel”.
French naval forces boarded the ship again on Wednesday to provide food and fuel to the crew on board, a military official told Associated Press.
The tanker known as Pushpa or Boracay, whose name has changed several times, was sailing under the flag of Benin and appears on a list of ships targeted by EU sanctions against Russia. It was on its way to India from Russia’s Baltic Sea port of Primorsk, according to the Marine Traffic monitoring website.
Russia increasingly uses old vessels, known as the “shadow fleet”, to skirt Western sanctions.
