EU Foreign Minister calls for coordinated action to Russia's “shadow fleet” in the Baltic Sea

This weekend, ahead of the EU Foreign Ministers' meeting, calls for strengthening and coordinating the interception of the Russian “Shadow Fleet” of the Baltic tanker, which will impose sanctions on 180 ships, with the number of ships approved by the EU of 350.

Efforts to block fleets are estimated to account for 85% of Russia's oil exports, and therefore funds account for about one-third of Russia's budget, which is seen as a key testament to the EU's determination to bear economic pressure on Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Saturday in the latest steps against the Shadow Fleet, a group of aging around 500 and using convenient flags to hang Russian oil's flag into India's countries that would violate the G7 countries, including Canada (including Canada) in 2022.

But Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys warned that the current law enforcement is ineffective and is now facing the threat of Russian military retaliation. About three full shadow tankers travel through Nordic waters every day, including the Denmark Strait and the Channel.

Bris spoke at the Lennart Meri conference in Tallinn, highlighting the uncertainty about the law on intercepting international waters and fearing a full-scale military confrontation with Russia. Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur called on all approved vessels to be deprived of access to EU economic exclusion zone waters because they were denied access to EU ports. The move would severely limit the Russian fleet, but would arguably violate maritime laws.

Related: Despite Western sanctions

Last week, fighting intensified to the Estonian airspace by Russian Sukhoi Su-35 jets, which looked like revenge from an oil tanker named Jaguar, which may have been carrying Russian oil and being accompanied by the country's navy's economic waters. It is not clear whether the ship has been subject to British sanctions and there is no flag registration, which is the most reliable legal reason for banning ships.

The Estonian Navy believes that the ship is part of the Russian shadow fleet and may pose a threat to nearby underwater cables and contact it to check its status and registration. Faced with the Jaguar resistance, the Estonians escorted it to the international waters of the Gulf of Finland on their way to the Russian port of Pridosk. When the ship was escorted, a Russian jet entered Estonian airspace for one minute without permission.

It is seen as the first time that the army supported the shadow fleet to Russia and the first time entering Estonian airspace for at least three years.

It is believed that the fleet has expanded and may expand to 700 uninsured tankers to circumvent regulations denying high-quality insurance carrying high-quality insurance for oil tankers, sold at a price of more than $60 per barrel. The innovative U.S.-designed oil cap policy balances two goals – limiting Russian revenues from its war machine while maintaining oil supply to the world economy. G7 countries can approve vessels operating without insurance.

Related: US rejects G7 proposal to fight Russia's shadow tanker's shadow fleet

The paradox, Brees said, is that less than half of the ships are approved by the EU, the US or the UK by all three ships. He said he wanted to see all the vessels approved by the fleet and to approve the level of proof needed to reduce and standardize. He said the Baltic States need to clarify the rights of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on the inspection of ships without walls, especially in a country's exclusive economic zone. Estonian Transportation Authority has examined documents of more than 450 ships since June last year, but the right to ban in international waters is strictly restricted.

Budrys rejected some Baltic shipping companies' concerns that a more aggressive posture would lead to restrictions on freedom of navigation for ships in the western South China Sea.

Lawyers often advise ministers that the law on the interception law is not clear at the moment, but he said it is meaningless to try to reopen outdated UNCLOS itself because the process will take too long.

“Last week's event involved Russian protection of Jaguars, changing the overall assessment and picture through the use of Russian jets. Russia is now showing force, causing the incident, and even entering NATO airspace to protect these ships.”

Since January, NATO's Baltic Sentinel mission has been established to protect the critical infrastructure of the Baltic, i.e. mainly submarine cables, but there is no direct responsibility for the shadow fleet.

“We need not only to continue the Baltic Sea, but to expand its mission, as the increase in the shadow fleet increases the likelihood of military events in the Baltic Sea. It's serious,” Bris said.

However, Benjamin Hilgenstock, head of macroeconomic research at the Kiev School of Economics, claimed that the oil price ceiling has proven to be unenforceable, partly because there is no means to check that the oil has been traded at the announced price.

Critics say that despite a 14-country Shadow Fleet expert panel, there is no human body coordinated law enforcement actions or wisdom about Shadow Fleet, and different countries adopt different approaches.

John Mead, deputy commander of the Allied Joint Command, stressed that NATO's focus is on protecting underwater cables, but for this, pursuing this has praised 1,800 ships to check the status of the flag. It also launched a drone to improve surveillance.

He added: “If the Russians wanted to improve their posture by accompanying each Shadow Fleet through the Baltic Sea, they would be exhausted very quickly.”

“We realize that this is not to maintain its war economy at the same time, but rather that the shadow fleet is at the heart of the entire system,” Anna Wieslander, Director of Nordic Europe at the Atlantic Commission, said in mid-last year.

She said the incident last week showed: “The Shadow Fleet is at the heart of its national security. The first step is to be aware of this scale, which is for the scope of the war economy. We should all approve them, why not?”