“The approval to board the vessels came as the prime minister arrived in Finland ahead of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) summit in Helsinki, a military coalition of northern European nations. Starmer will address the summit on Thursday.
Royal Navy personnel have supported countries including Finland, Sweden and Estonia with the monitoring and tracking of shadow fleet vessels in recent weeks.
No UK military personnel have yet boarded any vessels but senior government figures are keen for that to change.
Specialist military units have been undertaking training in recent weeks to wargame different scenarios, including how to deal with armed crews.
That training is understood to now be complete and Ministry of Defence officials are working on the assumption that the first operation of this type will happen sooner rather than later.
Those involved could include the Special Boat Service and the Royal Marines, depending on the level of resistance expected from crews aboard the shadow vessels…
The Defence Secretary, John Healey, and the Attorney General, Lord Hermer, met their counterparts in the Joint Expeditionary Force in recent weeks to go through the precise legal implications for different types of scenarios.
Speaking ahead of the JEF summit, Starmer said the world was “increasingly volatile and dangerous”.
He added: “Putin is rubbing his hands at the war in the Middle East because he thinks higher oil prices will let him line his pockets.
“That’s why we’re going after his shadow fleet even harder, not just keeping Britain safe but starving Putin’s war machine of the dirty profits that fund his barbaric campaign in Ukraine.”…”