The boarding

The French navy boarded the tanker DF Peak on Monday, 12 October 2026, at a point more than 450 nautical miles (about 833 kilometres) south of Réunion, the French island in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. President Emmanuel Macron announced the operation on X, saying the navy had intercepted a vessel suspected of sailing under a false flag and of being involved in fuel transport trafficking. The French armed forces general staff said a document check by the boarding team confirmed doubts about the irregular flag, and the ship was redirected under escort by units of the national navy. The Réunion prefecture is supervising the continued checks, according to the defence minister's announcement.

The ship and its cargo

Marinetraffic data cited by DW showed the tanker flying the flag of Benin and heading to Chile. Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) said the tanker had been used to transport Russian oil. According to AFP, as cited by DW's Russian service, the vessel was built in 2006 and owned by Sovcomflot under the name NS Captain, was renamed Kaliningrad in 2024, and received its current name in 2025. Its operator is registered in Hong Kong. DW reports that DF Peak is one of more than 700 vessels on EU sanctions lists. Europa Press reports that the cargo has not been disclosed.

Earlier French detentions

Since autumn 2025, France has detained five other shadow fleet tankers: Grinch, Boracay, Deyna, Tagor and Deliver. All of them were later released. DW reports that the Grinch was released after its owners paid a fine of several million euros, because the crew could not justify sailing under the flag of the Comoros, which it flew at the time of detention. VesselFinder data cited by DW shows the Grinch changed its flag four times since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and was renamed Transformer. Britain, Belgium and Sweden have also detained shadow fleet tankers, according to the same report.

Moscow's response

Vladimir Putin, according to DW, described the European seizures as 'piracy and banditry' and threatened to seize foreign ships. Europa Press reported that Russian authorities had not yet commented on the boarding of DF Peak. The cargo of the DF Peak has not been made public.

The wider EU effort

The EU is stepping up its campaign against the Russian shadow fleet in an effort to limit Moscow's revenue from oil sales, DW reports. On 30 August, the EU IRINI naval operation in the Mediterranean checked the tanker MV SUN on suspicion of using a false flag. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that this was the sixth suspected shadow fleet vessel stopped in EU maritime operations in the preceding months.