(CN) — With tensions rising in the Baltic Sea, the European Union is seeking to tighten the screws on Moscow with a move to block the passage of oil tankers deemed to be part of Russia’s sanctions-evading “shadow fleet.”
The escalating clash in recent days saw Russia deploy a fighter jet to protect a Russian-bound tanker from being detained by Estonia’s navy, and Russia briefly detaining a Greek-owned tanker after it left an Estonian port.
Adding to the tensions, France on Wednesday reportedly deployed its Dupuy de Lôme intelligence-gathering vessel to the Baltic for the first time. Its task will be to monitor Russian ships and intercept radio signals, media reported.
Additionally, the EU on Tuesday added 189 more vessels to its sanctions list, bringing the number to 342.
The ships are part of what Western officials say is a “shadow fleet” of more than 600 vessels, many of them considered dangerously old, used to circumvent Western sanctions on Russian oil exports. To avoid detection, Western officials say they have been known to disable their transponders as they sail around the world transporting oil. India is buying a lot of this Russian oil and even selling it back to European buyers.
These ships are of murky ownership; covered by non-Western insurance companies or operating without insurance, they likely do not meet environmental and safety standards and sail under third-country flags.
The EU said the “restrictive measures on the shadow fleet” were “intended to dismantle its operational capacity” and cut off oil revenues “that support Russia’s war economy.”
The face-off in the Baltic Sea escalated on May 13 when the Estonian navy attempted to detain the Jaguar, a suspected shadow vessel.
Estonia said it did not intend to board the vessel but rather escort it into Russian waters, as reported by Estonian Public Broadcasting. Estonian officials said they were concerned the vessel would seek to damage underwater infrastructure.
But after Russia sent an SU-35 fighter jet to escort the ship to the Russian port of Primorsk, the Estonian navy apparently backed off and let the vessel go. Estonia said the ship was inside its exclusive economic zone, while Russia said it was in international waters.
Crew aboard the Jaguar took video of the incident, which was released on social media. In videos, two Estonian patrol boats and a helicopter appeared to aggressively circle the vessel. Russian officials charged that Estonian special forces wanted to board the ship by helicopter. Estonia denied its forces tried to get aboard the ship.
The episode showed Russia for the first time implicitly acknowledging its interest in protecting so-called shadow fleet vessels, Western experts said. By sending a fighter jet to escort the ship and having it briefly pass through NATO airspace was viewed as a threatening move by Russia.
Four days later, on Sunday, Russia upped the stakes when it detained a Greek-owned tanker that was passing through its territorial waters after it left the port of Sillamäe in Estonia. Russia said it ordered the ship to change course because it was traversing dangerous waters. The ship was released by Monday.
Then Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced a vessel on the sanctions list was spotted carrying out “suspicious maneuvers” near an undersea power cable connecting Poland and Sweden. He said the ship withdrew to a Russian port following a “military intervention” by Poland.
At an emergency meeting Thursday at the Polish Navy’s tactical command center in Gdynia, Tusk called the incident “a direct aggression” against Poland’s security. Shadow fleet vessels previously have been accused of cutting undersea cables by dropping their anchors.
“The Baltic Sea could evolve into a zone of continuous hybrid confrontation, similar to the Polish eastern border,” Tusk said, as reported by the state Polish Press Agency.
Poland accuses Belarus and Russia of sending groups of asylum-seekers across its eastern border in what it has called part of Russia’s “hybrid war” against the West. To gird against the influx of asylum-seekers, Poland has erected an intricate system of barbed-wire fences and deployed its military along its border with Belarus.
Tusk said Poland must be wary of Russian actions targeting its maritime infrastructure, including offshore wind farms and pipelines. He said Poland planned to buy drones to patrol its waters in the Baltic.
“With the help of drones, we will be able to effectively control what is happening under the water, on the water and above the water,” Tusk said.
Russia accuses the EU and its Baltic member states of seeking to institute an illegal “blockade” of Russian ports and calls Western sanctions unlawful “unilateral coercive measures.”
Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s representative on the United Nations Security Council, slammed the moves.
“Actions against civilian vessels at sea are blatant and unprecedented,” he said Tuesday in a statement. “They are comparable perhaps only to piracy; the only difference is that the role of ‘pirates of the Baltic Sea’ is taken on by NATO countries.”
Nebenzia denounced Estonia’s actions against the Jaguar.
“The ship’s captain was given an ultimatum demanding to change course and sail into Estonian territorial waters,” he said. “Then, two attempts were made by an assault team to board the tanker from a helicopter. When they failed to do so, an Estonian naval craft literally tried to ram the tanker.”
He charged that Estonia violated laws permitting the freedom of navigation.
“This habit of using NATO naval forces and assets for such illegal actions will do nothing but pave the way to military escalation and the creation of serious challenges to maritime security,” he warned.
Nebenzia also accused Western countries of avoiding investigations into who carried out the bombing of Russia’s Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic in September 2022.
In seeking to block the passage of Russian shadow fleet tankers, the EU faces a dilemma. Such actions could be construed under international maritime law as an illegal blockade, because ships enjoy the right of passage through a country’s waters without needing to seek permission.
Russia has vowed to defend its shipping interests in the Baltic Sea. Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for the Kremlin, said the deployment of the fighter jet during the Jaguar incident showed Russia was “capable of responding quite harshly.”
Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.