A seized Russian-flagged oil tanker has been escorted deep into Scottish waters.
The Marinera was seized by the United States in the North Atlantic last week, between Scotland and Iceland.
It has now emerged the ship has made its way into the Moray Firth in the north of Scotland.
Photographs snapped on Tuesday show the tanker, formerly known as Bella-1, being escorted into the firth by an US Coast Guard ship and several UK tug boats.
It is not yet known where the ship is heading.
The joint US-UK operation, which saw the sanctioned ‘ghost ship’ boarded by military forces, made waves among anti-war activists last week.
The Stop The War coalition said the Scottish Government “had serious questions to answer” about the use of the government-owned Wick John O’Groats airport to refuel three US Airforce special-ops aircraft.
The aircraft landed at the airport around 11 am on Wednesday morning before departing an hour later and travelling to Reykjavik in Iceland.
A Stop the War Scotland spokesperson said that the airport had been used in a “grave violation of international law”.
“The people of Scotland deserve a government that stands up for sovereignty, rather than bending the knee for imperial power. It seems John Swinney has opted to lead the latter.”
However, John Swinney has said the Scottish Government were not given advance notice of the landings, which were scheduled a month ago.
Swinney told MSPs last week: “I believe in the international rules-based system. But, having listened carefully to the United States administration, I cannot see how international law has been respected in that case.
“I have no knowledge as to whether or not aircraft that landed at Wick airport on the morning of January 7 were involved in that initiative. We have no knowledge on whether that is the case or not.”
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