France investigates Russian “shadow fleet” tanker anchored off coast one week after it was spotted near Denmark amid airport drone sightings

French authorities have launched an investigation into the oil tanker Boracay, sailing under the flag of Benin and believed to be part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet.” According to a Reuters report, the vessel was stopped by the French Navy and is now anchored off the port of Saint-Nazaire on the country’s western coast.

As reported earlier by The Insider, in April the tanker — then named Kiwala — was detained by Estonia. It was sailing under the flag of Djibouti, but investigators found the ship was not registered in that country. In September, the same vessel, under a new name, was spotted near Copenhagen at a time when the local airport suspended operations because of a drone threat.

MarineTraffic data shows that on Sept. 20, Boracay departed from Primorsk, a Russian port in the Leningrad Region, carrying crude oil. It traveled through the Baltic Sea into the North Sea, then west through the English Channel. After the tanker rounded France’s northwestern tip, it was tailed by a French naval vessel. Boracay altered course eastward toward the French coast, where it dropped anchor.

The prosecutor in the French city of Brest told Reuters the investigation was launched after the Boracay’s crew ignored orders and failed to provide documents proving the vessel’s nationality. According to data from Starboard Maritime Intelligence reviewed by The Insider, the tanker was bound for Vadinar, India, home to the Nayara refinery, with an expected arrival date of Oct. 20.

The Boracay was placed under UK sanctions in 2024 and was added to the European Union’s blacklist in February 2025. EU officials said the vessel has been transporting Russian crude and refined products “using nonstandard and high-risk shipping practices.”

Reaction from Russia

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was unaware of the investigation into the Boracay. “We do not have any information, so we don’t know which ship is being referred to and what the story is,” state-run RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.

The Russian daily Izvestia published seven articles overnight and on the morning of Oct. 1 about the tanker’s detention. The paper quoted several Kremlin-friendly experts who called the move a provocation.

“There is informational, organizational, technical, and military preparation underway to stage a provocation in the Baltic, to create a conflict that ultimately should lead to full-scale military confrontation between NATO and Russia,” said Dmitry Solonnikov, director of the Institute of Contemporary State Development.

“This is part of a larger economic war the West is waging against Russia. That war has strictly defined goals. They are aimed at fixing the economic situation in the West,” said Vasily Koltashov, head of the Center for Political and Economic Research.

“I think intelligence services of some Western countries were involved. And when our ‘partners’ suffer setbacks on the front line, they have to resort to provocations,” said Vladimir Rudometkin, vice president of the Russian Academy of Transport.

In another Izvestia article, analysts dismissed claims that the Boracay could be linked to drone incidents over Europe. “Today they invented evidence with a tanker allegedly from the Russian shadow fleet. But they cannot even prove that the Russian shadow fleet actually exists in the first place, let alone that this tanker has anything to do with it. Yet they have already linked it to drones,” political analyst Alexei Yaroshenko was quoted as saying.

Finally, “American political analyst” Bruce Marks — likely U.S. lawyer Bruce Marks, who has worked in Russia since the 1990s and regularly comments for pro-government media — was open to the possibility that the captain and crew of Boracay could be Russian citizens. “Obviously, international law requires Russian diplomats, if they [the crew] are Russian, to be allowed to communicate with them. In addition, if they need lawyers, they must be provided with lawyers,” Marks said.