Two oil tankers hit by US sanctions are sailing east through the Channel toward Russia. These are the Aria and the Tia, both involved in sanctions over ties to Moscow. They passed south of Britain just one day after the US seized the Marinera oil tanker in the Atlantic with help from the UK. Defence Secretary John Healey told MPs the Marinera was seized because it falsely flagged and was part of Russia’s "shadow fleet" that smuggled oil to fund its illegal war in Ukraine. This raised questions about whether the US and UK will seize more vessels linked to Russia. When asked about the sanctioned ships on Thursday, the UK Ministry of Defence said it would not reveal plans or discuss live ship movements. A spokesperson repeated Healey’s statement: "Deterring, disrupting and degrading the Russian shadow fleet is a priority for this government." The Tia, now named Tiavan, is traveling from Turkey to a Russian port in the Gulf of Finland and will arrive on January 13. It was sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2024 after carrying Venezuelan crude oil, and it changed names several times. The Aria, sailing under the Barbados flag, was spotted early Thursday evening heading toward Ust-Luga port in the eastern Baltic. It is also banned by the US Treasury and linked to Russia’s largest shipping company. On Wednesday, the US Navy captured the Marinera, formerly Bella 1, northwest of the British Isles after tracking it for over two weeks across the Atlantic. The tanker had refused US Coast Guard boarding near Venezuela and fled north from the Caribbean, changing its name and Russian registration before being caught.