Paris, March 1 -- French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a significant maritime operation in the North Sea targeting the "shadow fleet" used to bypass international restrictions.

In a post on X, the French leader revealed that French and Belgian forces conducted a joint operation to intercept a vessel suspected of violating sanctions.

"A major blow to the shadow fleet: in the North Sea, our French Navy helicopters helped last night in the boarding by Belgian forces of an oil tanker under international sanctions. Europeans are determined to cut off the sources of funding for Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine by enforcing sanctions."

The operation referenced by Macron was part of a broader maritime enforcement effort in which...