French soldiers onboard the tanker from Russia's so-called shadow fleet suspected of being involved in drone flights over Denmark. DAMIEN MEYER / AFPA French court is to try the Chinese captain of a tanker from Russia's "shadow fleet" early next year, prosecutors said Thursday, October 2, after it was intercepted off the coast of France. French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu on X thanked "navy commandos and the crews of the French navy who intervened this weekend aboard the tanker belonging to the Russian ghost fleet." "The investigation carried out by the French navy concluded that it had no flag," said the Brest public prosecutor. The tanker left the Russian port of Primorsk outside Saint Petersburg on September 20, shipping data showed.