The United States has seized a Russian oil tanker linked to Venezuela. The raid, Reuters reports, took place in the Irish Sea after a two-week chase across the Atlantic.

The seizure of the Bella-1 vessel, renamed Marinera, has fueled tensions with Moscow and comes after the tanker managed to bypass a US maritime blockade of tankers and repelled attempts by the US Coast Guard to board it.

Moscow's naval vessels, which according to the same sources were in the vicinity at the time of the operation, including a submarine, are on alert.

According to the Russian Transport Minister, "the boarding of the Russian oil tanker Marinera (formerly Bella 1) on the high seas by American forces violated the 1982 UN Convention on the Laws of the Sea."

For its part, the United States European Command announced on X that the seizure occurred "due to violations of US sanctions." "The vessel," the US Command post continues, "was seized in the North Atlantic pursuant to a warrant issued by a US federal court, after being tracked by the USCGC Munro, a unit of the United States Coast Guard."

"The sanctioned and illegal blockade of Venezuelan oil remains in effect worldwide," Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth explained.

(Unioneonline)

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