French authorities boarded an oil tanker off the coast of France and arrested senior crew members in September 2025. The ship is suspected to be part of Russia’s illicit shadow fleet and was known to be just off the coast of Denmark when drone incursions disrupted Danish airports last month, leading to media speculation that the ship’s crew may have been involved in the incident. French President Emmanuel Macron said at a European Union summit in Copenhagen on October 1 that the ship’s crew had committed “serious wrongdoings,” prompting France to stop the vessel as it rounded the country’s northwestern coast.
French troops secured the vessel on September 27, according to some media reports, and arrested the captain and first officer. “I think it’s a good thing that this work has been done and that we’ve been able to stop it,” Macron said on the sidelines of the summit when news broke of the boarding of the tanker known as Boracay, which has also operated under the names Pushpa and Kiwala. “There were some very serious wrongdoings made by this crew, which is why there are legal proceedings in the case.”
The Boracay, which had been detained by Estonia earlier this year for operating without a valid country flag, left Russia on September 20 bound for India where it was due to arrive in late October. It has been sailing with frequent flag and name changes with unclear ownership and management, according to The Maritime Executive, a news outlet focused on the maritime industry.
The ship was near Denmark when the drone incursions occurred between September 22 and 27. Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in large numbers and with strong indications of military direction shut down the Copenhagen airport and several others in the Nordic country and buzzed a military base in the Jutland peninsula, prompting the Danish military to deploy assets. Prime Minister Mette Fredericksen explicitly linked the drone incursions to Russia, saying that it was the only plausible suspect. NATO responded by ramping up its Baltic Sentry operation, which began earlier in the year after a series of sabotage incidents in the region, likewise linked to Moscow. Russian drones and warplanes have also entered Polish and Estonian airspace in recent weeks, prompting EU and NATO discussions about potential responses.
The Boracay remained anchored near the western French port of Saint-Nazare until October 2, when its Chinese captain and first officer were released by French authorities with orders to return for court proceedings in February 2026, The Maritime Executive reported. French charges included operating under a false flag and refusing to stop when ordered by the military. Frederiksen said she would not comment on specific investigations but added that the region was “facing a lot of problems with the shadow fleet … That has been the case, especially in the Baltic Sea for quite a long time … We are working very closely together to battle this situation,” according to The Independent, a British newspaper.
Macron said the “notorious shadow fleet,” made up of between “600 and 1,000 ships,” is believed to represent tens of billions of euros of Russia’s budget and finances 40% of its war effort, the newspaper reported. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia had no information about the ship.