What happened when US forces seized the tanker Marinera
A retrospective on the boarding of a sanctioned Russian-flagged vessel in the North Atlantic during the US blockade around Venezuela.
What did the US blockade around Venezuela look like on 7 January 2026? On that date, the United States boarded and seized the sanctioned Russian-flagged tanker Marinera, also known as Bella 1, in the North Atlantic Ocean. The vessel had breached the US naval blockade around Venezuela.
The seizure took place under Operation Southern Spear. The blockade on sanctioned oil tankers travelling in and out of Venezuela had been enacted on 17 December 2025, after Washington added sanctions affecting the country's oil trade. A week before the blockade was announced, the US had seized the oil tanker Skipper in the Caribbean Sea off the Venezuelan coast, on 10 December, and then focused its military efforts on intercepting and pursuing other tankers trading with Venezuela.
The Marinera was seized in the Atlantic near Iceland. On the same day, the US also boarded and seized the Panama-flagged tanker M Sophia in the Caribbean Sea.
The seizure of a Russian-flagged ship added a further dimension to Russia–United States relations, and it was placed within that context at the time.
A separate appointment in Kyiv
Elsewhere, on 5 January 2026, President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed Chrystia Freeland, the former deputy prime minister of Canada, as his adviser on economic development.
