Britain has been faced with an immediate test on whether the seizure of sanctioned oil tankers will continue after another Russian vessel began sailing through the English Channel on Thursday.
The day after US forces, with UK military assistance, seized the Venezuela-linked Marinera, the Tavian, which was sanctioned by the US in 2024 for allegedly distribution of illicit Russian oil, was spotted transiting the narrow waters between Britain and France.
The UK Ministry of Defence refused to comment on whether an operation was being planned to seize the ship, but a spokesman did state that the defence secretary had called it a “priority” to “disrupt and degrade the Russian shadow fleet”.
The Tavian, which is on a course that will take it into the Baltic Sea, will prove the first significant challenge to Britain on whether it is willing to use the “hard power”, that a senior Labour minister stated was necessary in the emerging world order.
The international community must recognise it is operating in a “changed world” in which “hard power” is increasingly being used to achieve national aims, said Pat McFadden, a cabinet minister close to Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
He argued that America’s actions in Venezuela, seizing the Marinera and its belligerent attitude to Greenland should be viewed as part of a new global reality.
“We are in a world now where the exercise of hard power is making a bigger impact on things,” he told the BBC.
Signalling that Britain would back the new world order, he argued that if the UK was to be taken seriously then it too would “have to be able to exercise hard power and soft power” and there was “no denying that since President Trump came to power” this had changed the dynamic.
His comments came after Britain made it clear it would continue to assist America in its pursuit of shadow tankers busting oil sanctions following the UK’s assistance to US forces in seizing the Marinera on Wednesday.
The Russia-flagged, Venezuelan-linked vessel – previously known as Bella 1 – was boarded by US forces while travelling through waters between Iceland and Scotland.
Although it had registered to Russia while sailing in the mid-Atlantic, officials argued the registration was invalid, rendering the ship stateless and allowing its seizure.
While Moscow has condemned the action it is yet to be seen if it too will take the option to exercise hard power. However, Mr McFadden said the UK would not be intimidated. “I don't think we can be cowed from doing the right thing because of fear of Russia.”
The faltering alliance has certainly been strengthened by the action after Mr Starmer was among European leaders who had condemned the US’s designs on Greenland, a Nato ally that is part of Denmark.
Following the operation, the US military’s European Command posted on social media thanking the UK “for your unwavering support during the US operation to seize the M/V Bella”.
The message came just hours after President Donald Trump criticised Nato allies, suggesting America was “always there” for the alliance “even if they won’t be there for us”.
Mr Starmer also had his first phone call with Mr Trump since the apprehension of Nicolas Maduro in which they discussed the ship seizure and the US operation in Venezuela.
“The Prime Minister also set out his position on Greenland,” the terse Downing Street statement added late on Wednesday.
However German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who holds a largely ceremonial post, strongly criticised Mr Trump’s emerging foreign policy.
“There is the breakdown of values by our most important partner, the US, which helped build this world order,” he said late on Wednesday.
“It is about preventing the world from turning into a den of robbers, where the most unscrupulous take whatever they want, where regions or entire countries are treated as the property of a few great powers.”
The US, which also seized another tanker in the Caribbean, was taking the action to enforce sanctions on Iran and stop it “from fuelling instability through the profits of illegal oil sales”, John Healey, the UK Defence Secretary told Parliament on Wednesday evening.
The Marinera had moved 7.3 million barrels of Iranian crude oil “the proceeds of which have used to finance terrorism, threat and instability across the world” he added.
He also promised that Britain would step up its disruption of the Russian shadow tanker fleet that had helped earn Moscow $100 billion of sanctioned oil money to fund its war against Ukraine.
By forcing 200 ships off the seas, they had halved Russia’s shadow fleet's overall capacity, and its oil revenue were now down 27 per cent, he added.
