On October 12, the French navy intercepted and boarded an oil tanker suspected of flying under a false flag within the Russian ghost fleet, announced French President Emmanuel Macron.
The tanker, DF Peak, was allegedly carrying authorized Russian fuel and was stopped by the French navy 450 nautical miles (833 kilometers) south of the French territory of Réunion, in the Indian Ocean.
“France is determined to fight the ghost fleet, wherever it is in the world,” Macron wrote on
The tanker DF Peak, formerly named Kaliningrad, falsely sailed under the Beninese flag, according to the War and Sanctions portal of Ukrainian defense intelligence. The crude oil tanker is sanctioned by the US, EU, Switzerland, Canada and Japan.
The ship is currently under escort from the French Navy, Minister of the Armed Forces Catherine Vautrin indicated on X.
“International law is not optional,” writes Vautrin. “Our armed forces are fully mobilized to enforce it and fight against illicit activities at sea.”
The DF Peak is just one tanker in Russia’s “ghost fleet” – a group of aging and poorly insured tankers used by Moscow to ship its oil in violation of international sanctions. Western governments have also accused Moscow of using the fleet to support its hybrid war against Europe.
Throughout Russia’s war against Ukraine, European powers intercepted Shadow Fleet ships to try to prevent Moscow from reaping the windfall from illegal fuel sales.
The detentions helped halve the number of ships in Moscow’s ghost fleet flying under false flags between last October and June 2026, according to a report from the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) think tank published on September 25.
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