The captain of an oil tanker believed to be part of Russia's shadow fleet of vessels used to evade sanctions has been charged by French authorities.
The Chinese national was handed one count of refusing to follow instructions from the French navy and has been summoned to attend a court hearing in Brest next February.
The Boracay left Russia last month and was off the coast of Denmark when unidentified drones forced the temporary closure of several airports.
The tanker was boarded by French soldiers earlier this week because it was on a list of vessels subject to EU sanctions for carrying Russian oil exports. Russian President Vladimir Putin described France's actions as piracy.
The Kremlin had previously denied any knowledge of the vessel.
The Boracay is currently registered in Benin but has changed name and flag several times to evade sanctions imposed after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The French prosecutor's office noted that the captain was unable to provide a coherent answer regarding the ship's flag.
He, along with the second captain—also Chinese—has been detained since Tuesday while French authorities investigate two offences: refusing to comply with naval orders and failing to justify the vessel's flag nationality.
The second captain was released without charges.
The Boracay is now anchored near the port of Saint-Nazaire, down the coast from Brest. Under international maritime law, naval forces can stop a merchant vessel at sea if they have reasonable suspicion that it lacks a nationality.
Many Western nations have implemented sanctions against Russian energy imports and capped oil prices in response to the Ukraine war.
To evade these sanctions, Moscow has reportedly established a shadow fleet of tankers, obscuring their ownership and movements, with estimates suggesting several hundred tankers operate under this scheme.
French President Emmanuel Macron noted that Russia's shadow fleet could encompass between 600 and 1,000 ships.
The Boracay was previously detained by Estonian authorities for sailing under an invalid flag earlier this year. It had set off from the Russian port of Primorsk and navigated through various seas before reaching its current location.
The separate issue of whether the tanker was involved in last week's drone incursions into Danish airspace remains under investigation.
Macron declined to comment further on possible connections during a recent summit focused on EU security.
Denmark stated there was no evidence of Russian involvement, as reports emerged of airspace violations noted by Poland, Estonia, and Romania.
