{"id":37006,"date":"2026-03-01T16:24:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T08:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multimetro.hk\/plus\/2026\/03\/01\/belgium-seizes-suspected-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T16:24:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T08:24:00","slug":"belgium-seizes-suspected-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/multimetro.hk\/plus\/2026\/03\/01\/belgium-seizes-suspected-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgium seizes suspected Russian shadow fleet tanker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Belgium seized an oil tanker belonging to the Russian shadow fleet on Sunday, Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken said. Western sanctions imposed on Russia for invading Ukraine and aimed at cutting its oil revenues have led to the rise of a &#8220;shadow fleet&#8221; of tankers helping Moscow to keep its crude exports flowing.<br \/>&#8220;Over the past few hours, our armed forces, with the support of the French Defence, have boarded an oil tanker belonging to the Russian shadow fleet,&#8221; Francken said in a post on X early on Sunday.<br \/>&#8220;The vessel is currently being escorted to the port of Zeebrugge, where it will be seized.&#8221;<br \/>Shadow fleet vessels typically have opaque ownership structures and have raised concern about possible environmental risks, with poorly regulated, ageing tankers prone to spills, mechanical failures, and leaks, threatening marine ecosystems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Belgium seized an oil tanker belonging to the Russian shadow fleet on Sunday, Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken said. Western sanctions imposed on Russia for invading Ukraine and aimed at cutting its oil revenues have led to the rise of a &#8220;shadow fleet&#8221; of tankers helping Moscow to keep its crude exports flowing.&#8220;Over the past [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Belgium seizes suspected Russian shadow fleet tanker - Metro Plus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/multimetro.hk\/plus\/2026\/03\/01\/belgium-seizes-suspected-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Belgium seizes suspected Russian shadow fleet tanker - Metro Plus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Belgium seized an oil tanker belonging to the Russian shadow fleet on Sunday, Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken said. Western sanctions imposed on Russia for invading Ukraine and aimed at cutting its oil revenues have led to the rise of a &#8220;shadow fleet&#8221; of tankers helping Moscow to keep its crude exports flowing.&#8220;Over the past [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/multimetro.hk\/plus\/2026\/03\/01\/belgium-seizes-suspected-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Metro Plus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-01T08:24:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Metro Admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Metro Admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/multimetro.hk\\\/plus\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/01\\\/belgium-seizes-suspected-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/multimetro.hk\\\/plus\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/01\\\/belgium-seizes-suspected-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Metro Admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/multimetro.hk\\\/plus\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6bbe2f487494b6f04d542440127c7895\"},\"headline\":\"Belgium seizes suspected Russian shadow fleet tanker\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-01T08:24:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/multimetro.hk\\\/plus\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/01\\\/belgium-seizes-suspected-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":143,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/multimetro.hk\\\/plus\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/multimetro.hk\\\/plus\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/01\\\/belgium-seizes-suspected-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/multimetro.hk\\\/plus\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/01\\\/belgium-seizes-suspected-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker\\\/\",\"name\":\"Belgium seizes suspected Russian shadow fleet tanker - 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Western sanctions imposed on Russia for invading Ukraine and aimed at cutting its oil revenues have led to the rise of a &#8220;shadow fleet&#8221; of tankers helping Moscow to keep its crude exports flowing.&#8220;Over the past [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/multimetro.hk\/plus\/2026\/03\/01\/belgium-seizes-suspected-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker\/","og_site_name":"Metro Plus","article_published_time":"2026-03-01T08:24:00+00:00","author":"Metro Admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Metro Admin","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/multimetro.hk\/plus\/2026\/03\/01\/belgium-seizes-suspected-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/multimetro.hk\/plus\/2026\/03\/01\/belgium-seizes-suspected-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker\/"},"author":{"name":"Metro Admin","@id":"https:\/\/multimetro.hk\/plus\/#\/schema\/person\/6bbe2f487494b6f04d542440127c7895"},"headline":"Belgium seizes suspected Russian shadow fleet tanker","datePublished":"2026-03-01T08:24:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/multimetro.hk\/plus\/2026\/03\/01\/belgium-seizes-suspected-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker\/"},"wordCount":143,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/multimetro.hk\/plus\/#organization"},"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/multimetro.hk\/plus\/2026\/03\/01\/belgium-seizes-suspected-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker\/","url":"https:\/\/multimetro.hk\/plus\/2026\/03\/01\/belgium-seizes-suspected-russian-shadow-fleet-tanker\/","name":"Belgium seizes suspected Russian shadow fleet tanker - 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