Estonia intercepts Russian shadow tanker in Baltic Sea

The vessel, which Michal said did not sail under any nation’s flag but was previously registered to Djibouti according to publicly available records, was detained near Tallinn Bay in an operation involving helicopters, News.Az reports citing Politico.

“Early this morning, the Estonian Navy detained a sanctioned vessel with no flag state,” Michal said in a post on social media. “Our authorities are currently on board, inspecting its legal status and safety.”

Moscow commands a vast fleet of oil-exporting tankers in the Baltic Sea which it uses to circumvent Western sanctions and, Kyiv’s allies say, help fund its war against Ukraine.

The ghost vessels often have no flags — a violation of international maritime law — and dubious documentation, with some suspected of being involved in acts of sabotage on the seabed.

"It is no secret that over the past year, a number of vessels have appeared in the Gulf of Finland that sail without proper documentation,” said Estonian border police official Veiko Kommusaar, according to ERR. “And it can be stated quite clearly that this is part of the shadow fleet."

Western authorities have stepped up efforts to seize the illegal tankers, and have even mulled sinking them. Estonia’s parliament approved a new law Wednesday allowing the country’s navy to use "military force" on commercial vessels suspected of posing a “threat” to its subsea critical infrastructure.

Finnish authorities detained another tanker in December, suspecting it had sabotaged a subsea power link connecting Estonia to Finland.