You guys are aware that all these ships are flying false flags (this is where the term came from, btw) and are thus fair game? And this is covered by UN sanctions, yes?

There are apparently, no UN sanctions on Russia, regarding the invasion of Ukraine. Russia has a permanent seat on the Security Council, with a veto.

There is a UN Convention on the Law of the Sea that prohibits sailing under a false flag. The US is "exceptional" so is not a signatory, nor ratified the treaty, so only follows the convention when it feels like it.

The ship the US hijacked near Scotland was registered as Russian, with Lloyd's. One of the tankers the US snatched in the Caribbean reportedly had legit Panamanian registry, but the US claimed it carried sanctioned cargo.

The Brits released the tanker they seized in 2019. after about 42 days. There was a case, in 2023, where the US seized a tanker, which then rode at anchor, for a year, while the case worked it's way through the courts.

The Wiki article describes the legal issues in the seizure of that tanker.

The oil tanker St Nikolas (formerly Suez Rajan) has been involved in two geopolitically prominent seizures, by the United States and Iran.

en.wikipedia.org - St Nikolas(ship)

It is yet to be seen if the US regime follows legal niceties with the ships it has been hijacking over the last several weeks, or whether it simply steals them.

Steve