What we know about the US seizure of a Russian-flagged oil tanker

By Lex Harvey, CNN

(CNN) — United States forces boarded and seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the Atlantic Ocean Wednesday following a weeks-long chase on the high seas which has escalated tensions with Moscow and piled further pressure on its ally Venezuela.

The aging, rusting tanker, originally called the Bella 1, was sanctioned by the US in 2024 for operating within a “shadow fleet” of tankers transporting illicit Iranian oil.

Last month the US Coast Guard attempted to seize the vessel while it was heading to Venezuela to pick up oil, then operating under the flag of Guyana. But the ship’s crew refused to be boarded and made an abrupt turn into the Atlantic.

The Bella 1’s crew later painted a Russian flag on its side, and it appeared in a Russian shipping register under a new name, the Marinera.

US officials later said Moscow had dispatched a submarine to escort the vessel as it sailed toward Europe, threatening a possible confrontation between Washington and the Kremlin.

Here’s what we know.

Where and how was the Bella 1 seized?

The US repositioned military assets to the UK ahead of seizing the tanker, CNN has reported.

V-22 Osprey aircraft were active in the UK over the past several days, with flight data appearing to show them running training missions in the UK out of Fairford air base. And two AC-130 gunships were seen arriving at Mildenhall base in the UK on Sunday.

The Bella 1 was seized Wednesday roughly 190 miles off the southern coast of Iceland in the northern Atlantic Ocean, according to ship-tracking website MarineTraffic. The site shows the tanker taking a sharp turn south around the time that it was reported seized.

Russia’s Transport Ministry confirmed that it lost contact with the tanker after US forces boarded the ship at 7 a.m. ET.

US Navy SEALs were among the forces that boarded the tanker after they were transported to the ship by the US Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, also known as the “night stalkers,” according to two people briefed on the operation.

The UK defense ministry also said it helped with the seizure “following a US request for assistance.”

The US did not release footage of the seizure. Grainy video released by Russian state media RT appears to show a ship shadowing the movements of the Bella 1 in the days before the seizure.

In the video shot from aboard the Bella 1, an unmarked vessel can be seen hovering in the distance, partially obscured by fog. The RT report said the boat was a US Coast Guard ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said the crew of the US Coast Guard Munro had pursued the ship for weeks “across the high seas and through treacherous storms.” However, it’s unclear if the ship in the RT footage is the Munro.

Ahead of the vessel’s seizure, the Russian military had started to move around naval assets and a submarine to protect the ship, according to a US official. But it’s unclear how close those vessels were to the tanker when it was seized, the source said.

How has Russia responded?

Russia condemned the Bella 1’s seizure, with its transport ministry arguing “no state has the right to use force against vessels that are properly registered in the jurisdictions of other nations” under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a treaty which the US has not signed.

The country’s Foreign Ministry demanded that the US return the Russian citizens aboard “to their homeland,” according to the Russian state news agency TASS.

TASS also reported Russian lawmaker Leonid Slutsky called the US seizure of the vessel an act of “21st-century piracy” which violates international law.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has yet to comment on the seizure.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed risks of a confrontation with Russia, arguing US President Donald Trump maintains a good relationship with Putin.

“I believe those personal relationships are going to continue,” she said.

How much oil was the Bella 1 carrying?

The vessel was not carrying any oil when it was seized, according to analytics firm Kpler.

That’s in contrast with the Skipper and the Centuries, the other two tankers successfully intercepted by the Coast Guard in recent weeks as part of Washington’s pressure campaign on Venezuela. The US piloted both to Texas and is planning to seize their oil cargoes.

According to Kpler, the Bella 1’s compliance profile includes two separate 99-day gaps where the ship switched off its Automatic Identification System (AIS), a mandatory, real-time ship tracking system.

Switching off AIS transmission is a common tactic observed among vessels loading sanctioned Iranian crude, according to Kpler.

Were other ships seized?

In a separate operation Wednesday, the US said it seized an oil tanker called Sophia, in international waters near the Caribbean.

The ship was a “stateless, sanctioned” tanker which had been “conducting illicit activities in the Caribbean Sea,” according to a post to social media by US Southern Command.

The Sophia is carrying approximately 2 million barrels of crude oil which were loaded from a port in Venezuela, according to Emmanuel Belostrino, senior manager of crude oil market data at Kpler.

Will the US seize more ships?

The White House on Wednesday vowed to continue seizing sanctioned oil tankers despite concerns it could ratchet up tensions with Russia and China – which is a purchaser of Venezuelan oil.

Trump is “going to enforce our policy that’s best for the United States of America,” Leavitt said during a press briefing.

“That means enforcing the embargo against all dark fleet vessels that are illegally transporting oil.”

CNN’s Nic Robertson, Natasha Bertrand, Adam Cancryn, Darya Tarasova, Max Saltman, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Issy Ronald, Nick Paton Walsh and Catherine Nicholls contributed reporting.

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