This image from video provided by the U.S. Department of Defense, shows the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Munro shadowing the MV Bella 1 in the North Atlantic Ocean during the maritime interdiction operation Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (Department of Defense via AP)

The UK helped the US seize a Russian oil tanker in the North Atlantic, connected to Venezuelan oil, on Wednesday.

While Donald Trump’s clampdown on Venezuela’s fossil fuel industry has become clear in the last week, British involvement has some people scratching their heads. Here’s what we know so far and why it matters.

What happened?

The US seized a Russian-flagged ship called the Marinera – or Bella 1 – in the North Atlantic, along with a second tanker, the Sophia, in the Caribbean as part of a wider crackdown on the Kremlin’s “ghost fleet”.

This is a clandestine network of ships used to secretly carry Russian oil to and from its allies, bypassing international sanctions against Moscow’s war machine.

The States said both were “either last docked in Venezuela or en route to it”.

In a post on X, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said: “The blockade of sanctioned and illicit Venezuelan oil remains in FULL EFFECT — anywhere in the world”.

The US European Command said the seizure of the vessel supports Trump’s “proclamation targeting sanctioned vessels that threaten the security and the stability of the Western Hemisphere”.

The Trump administration has recently made it clear it wants to extend its sphere of influence across the whole of the western hemisphere.

After launching military strikes on Venezuela on Saturday, and deposing the country’s president

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