Navy barred from boarding Russian ships

 The Royal Navy has not seized any sanctioned Russian tankers because the Government fears it would breach international law.

Vladimir Putin’s shadow fleet has been allowed to pass through the English Channel despite Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge, a fortnight ago, to “go after” the ships.

Since The Telegraph revealed on Wednesday that Putin had sent a warship to escort sanctioned vessels through the Channel, there have been mounting questions over the Government’s failure to stop Russian ships.

Now it can be revealed that Lord Hermer, the Attorney General, has given legal advice about how the ships could be tackled in British territorial waters to prevent the flow of sanctioned oil to Russia’s allies.

Under his advice, ships can be boarded by special forces and officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA), but no such operations have taken place because of concerns about breaching international maritime law, which sets a high legal bar for a state to board a foreign vessel.

Officials must present a legal case for each operation, which is known under international law as an “interdiction”, and prove that the vessel has evaded British sanctions.

Putin sent three more vessels through the Channel on Thursday, hours after John Healey, the Defence Secretary, revealed that Russia had run a secret submarine operation in British waters that threatened vital energy and data cables.

It also emerged that one of the Russian vessels that crossed the Channel earlier this week was feared to be carrying supplies for Putin’s armed forces.

On Thursday, Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, told The Telegraph that Sir Keir had to stop the shadow fleet and recover “some of the respect Britain has lost recently” over its military response to the war in the Middle East.

He said: “I think it’s pathetic. I don’t know why we don’t board these sanction-busting ships. They are fuelling Putin’s war machine and funding his slaughter of innocent Ukrainians and we have a golden opportunity to stop it.

“I think if we did, it would do a lot to recover some of the respect Britain has lost recently for our inability to defend our friends in the Gulf and use our bases in Cyprus.

“Putin is breaking the law – he knows he is, and he is laughing at us. It’s important to choke off Putin’s income. They need to restore a bit of pride in the British Armed Forces. This is not the fault of the Armed Forces – it’s the abysmal leadership of the Government.”

Legal concerns have derailed Sir Keir’s pledge, made on March 26, that the UK would “go after [Putin’s] shadow fleet even harder” and starve his war machine of “dirty profits”.

The Royal Navy is understood to be prepared for seizures in the Channel, during which NCA officers, who can make arrests under British sanctions legislation, would assist military officials.

But when a Black Sea fleet frigate, the Admiral Grigorovich, accompanied a pair of shadow fleet ships through the Channel on Tuesday, a British naval vessel merely followed behind.

The Russian tankers in the Channel were met with vessels from the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA), which are staffed by civilian sailors rather than members of the Armed Forces.

One of the Russian vessels is feared to have been carrying supplies and spare parts for Russia’s armed forces, with The i Paper reporting that the ship was loaded with “military-relevant” cargo and escorted by a Black Sea fleet frigate armed with cruise and surface-to-air missiles.

On Thursday, three more sanctioned Russian tankers passed through the Channel, raising concerns that Putin’s shadow fleet is being allowed to operate with impunity in British waters.

Sir Keir’s threat of UK forces boarding the vessels appears to have reduced the flow of traffic in the Channel, with many sanctioned tankers instead passing through the North Sea and around the coast of Ireland.

On Thursday, Mr Healey said there was “more we can do” to stop the shadow fleet, but added that Russia’s decision to escort the vessel with a warship showed Britain had successfully diverted Putin’s resources away from Ukraine.

The Defence Secretary added: “We are ready. We have the military options, and we’re ready to take action, not just in support of but actually with allies, to interdict shadow fleet vessels.”

He also announced that the Royal Navy had recently tracked Russian spy submarines near undersea cables in the North Sea.

Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, he revealed that Britain had monitored a Russian Akula-class nuclear-powered attack submarine and two specialist submarines belonging to a deep-sea research programme known as Gugi, run by Moscow’s defence ministry.

He said there was “no evidence” that the cables had been damaged, but that the UK would work with allies, including Norway, to assess the scale of any interference by Russia.

The Telegraph understands that the UK could deploy RFA Proteus, a specialist survey and surveillance ship, as part of an operation to verify that no damage had been caused.

Russia’s latest maritime interference will raise further concerns about the state of the Royal Navy, which is awaiting the outcome of the Government’s long-delayed Defence Investment Plan.

Mr Healey said the plan would be published as soon as possible. There have been reports of last-minute wrangling with the Treasury over defence funding.