Zelenskyy thanks UK for intercepting Russian shadow fleet oil tanker after armed forces board vessel - as it happened

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8h ago

Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanks UK for intercepting Russian shadow fleet oil tanker

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has thanked the UK for intercepting a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker in the English Channel, describing it as an “important step”.

“It was Russia’s hubris, fuelled by high oil and gas revenues, that paved the way for this war, and every decision by partners that deprives Russia of money also limits the war itself” he wrote in a post on X , in which he personally thanked the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, and “all Britons”.

He added in his post: “And Europe urgently needs to take legislative steps to enable not only the detention of tankers and restrictions on oil shipments, but also the confiscation of the oil they carry. This will certainly help bring peace closer.”

Keir Starmer greets Volodymyr Zelenskyy outside 10 Downing Street ahead of talks on ongoing support for Ukraine on 7 June 2026. Photograph: Thomas Krych/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock Along with France, the UK is leading the so-called “coalition of the willing” initiative to carve out security guarantees for Kyiv as part of any future peace deal with Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected negotiation proposals and has so far been sticking to his maximalist positions.

Over the four years since the start of Russia’s full scale invasion, the more than 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line has remained largely static as drone warfare hinders advances. The US-Israel war on Iran has shifted critical resources and diplomatic attention away from Ukraine over the last few months.

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Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanks UK for intercepting Russian shadow fleet oil tanker

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British forces intercept Russian shadow fleet vessel in English Channel

Closing summary

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the UK after British armed forces intercepted a Russian shadow fleet vessel in the English Channel in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Royal Marine commandos and specially trained law enforcement officers from the National Crime Agency boarded a sanctioned oil tanker during a six-hour operation – the first UK-led operation of its kind, according to the MoD.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has written to the prime minister, Keir Starmer, along with potential Labour leadership rivals, including Andy Burnham, calling on them to cut welfare spending and redirect savings to defence.

Cabinet ministers have been asked to look for more money in their departments to fund an increase in defence spending after the resignation of the former defence secretary John Healey .

The culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, said discussions on shifting resources for the long-awaited defence investment plan (Dip) were ongoing, and confirmed it will be published before the Nato summit in Ankara in early July.

Nandy said she was in favour of cutting welfare to fund defence, like Burnham, and told Sky News that she agreed with some of what the former defence minister, Al Carns, said in his resignation letter last week .

Nigel Farage said he would ban foreign nationals from social housing and then deport them if they could not find private sector homes, in a hardening of extreme anti-immigration rhetoric before the Makerfield byelection.

Thanks for joining us. We are closing this blog now. You can find all our latest coverage of UK politics here .

Keir Starmer has welcomed his Japanese counterpart Sanae Takaichi to Downing Street ahead of the G7 summit next week. Speaking inside No 10, with her remarks translated into English, Takaichi, the leader of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party, said:

double quotation mark Japan and the United Kingdom are enhanced global strategic partners and are both maritime nations. We have a shared strategic recognition, including that the security of the Indo-Pacific and the Euro-Atlantic are inseparable.

Japan and the UK are strengthening our cooperation in various areas, including in the area of security. The United Kingdom is an extremely important partner for Japan.

And including our cooperation through the Gcap, I believe personally that our relationship is one that could be described as quasi-allies. With you here, I would like to elevate Japan-UK relations to even more heights.

Keir Starmer met Sanae Takaichi, the first woman to hold the position of prime minister in Japanese history, on the steps of No 10 earlier today. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA Farage vows to ban foreign nationals from soci…