On 28 September 2025, French naval commandos made additional discoveries after boarding the Boracay off the French coast, possibly due to the ship’s alleged link to drone incidents over Denmark. French commandos discovered that the ship had a Chinese captain, but also carried two Russians employed by Moran Security Group, a Russian private military company founded by former Federal Security Service officers. One of the Russians also previously worked for the Russian private military company Wagner Group.
Interviews revealed that the Russians were tasked with “gathering intelligence, protecting the ship, and ensuring that the captain strictly complied with Russian interests.” That provided “direct evidence of a shadow fleet vessel linked to Russian intelligence structures,” according to the IISS report.
On March 30, 2026, a French court sentenced in absentia the Chinese captain to one year in prison and issued an arrest warrant after convicting him of failing to comply with orders to stop his ship. The court also ordered the captain to pay a fine of $172,000.
The European response
He full report goes into much greater detail about the movements of individual shadow fleet vessels during various drone incidents. But the overall picture of Russia’s potential drone campaign suggests that the European response has been largely fragmented and uncoordinated so far.
The European Union is working to develop a European drone defense initiative (EDDI) that would allow member countries to deploy interoperable counter-drone technologies to detect, track and shoot down or otherwise neutralize drones. But the system is not expected to be fully functional until the end of 2027.
The IISS report also warns that “no amount of hardware will compensate for the absence of political authority to use it” and suggests that European governments must coordinate better to establish legal clarity around the rules of engagement for drone raids.
Then there is the “more difficult” problem of maritime liability, according to the IISS report. That will require European governments to be more willing to investigate and prevent Russian-linked ships and shadow fleet vessels from loitering near European coasts while launching drones with “effective impunity.”
