EU forces board oil tanker on suspicion of 'sailing under false flag'

EU forces board oil tanker on suspicion of 'sailing under false flag' EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the move was aimed at increasing pressure on what she described as "Russia’s shadow fleet"© kajakallas/ XBRUSSELS, July 22. /TASS/. European Union forces boarded the Cameroon-flagged oil tanker MV South Star in the Mediterranean Sea over suspicions that it was sailing under a false flag, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. "The oil tanker MV South Star, suspected of sailing under a false flag in breach of international maritime law, was boarded on July 20 by forces from the EU's Operation IRINI for flag verification," she wrote on X. Kallas said the move was aimed at increasing pressure on what she described as "Russia’s shadow fleet." She did not say whether the vessel had been released after the inspection. Kallas added that the European Union had authorized its Operation ATALANTA’s mission, which is tasked with combating piracy off Somalia’s coast, to conduct "flag verification boardings" of ships blacklisted by the EU in the same manner as Operation IRINI, which monitors the migration situation in the Mediterranean Sea. On March 21, Nikolay Patrushev, Russian presidential aide and head of the Maritime Board, stated that EU countries had invented the term "shadow fleet" in order to "commit robbery" along maritime routes. He pointed out that the Westerners had intensified measures against merchant vessels operating in Russia’s interests in an attempt to complicate the transportation of Russian cargo. 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