Estonia says detaining Russia’s tankers in Baltic Sea is too risky

By Andrius Sytas

VAINDLOO ANCHORAGE, Estonia, April 10 (Reuters) – NATO member Estonia will refrain from detaining Russia’s “shadow fleet” vessels in the Baltic Sea, worried that seizing oil tankers and other ships sanctioned by the West could lead Moscow to defend them militarily, a senior commander said on Friday.

Britain and other European nations, including France, Belgium and Sweden, have stepped up efforts to detain ageing tankers used by Moscow to secure vital funding for its four-year war against Ukraine.

But Estonia, the northernmost Baltic state located close to Russia’s main oil and fuel export facilities in the Gulf of Finland, is practicing restraint after an unsuccessful attempt to board a Russian vessel last year.

“The risk of military escalation is just too high,” Estonia’s Navy Commander Ivo Vark told Reuters.

In May 2025 Estonia said Moscow sent a fighter jet into NATO airspace over the Baltic Sea during an Estonian attempt to stop an unflagged Russia-bound oil tanker it believed was defying Western sanctions.

The jet eventually escorted the oil tanker into Russian waters.

TANKERS AWAITING OIL CARGO

Since then, Moscow has launched a permanent patrol of two or three armed military vessels in the Gulf of Finland, and also deployed more ships elsewhere in the Baltic Sea, along the lanes used by tankers carrying Russian oil, Vark said.

“The Russian military presence here in the Gulf of Finland has become much, much more evident,” Vark said.

Only in the case of imminent danger, such as damage to underwater infrastructure or oil spills, would Estonia consider intervening, he added.

“Obviously in the Atlantic Ocean and also the North Sea there’s very little Russian presence so it gives you a lot more time and more liberty to act upon those vessels as the risk for military engagement and escalation is much lower,” Vark said.

Reuters reporters aboard an Estonian navy vessel in the Gulf of Finland on Friday observed a Russian navy corvette near a large group of idle tankers awaiting their turn to enter a nearby Russian port and load oil.

The number of tankers at the Vaindloo Anchorage in Estonia’s exclusive economic zone has tripled to around 30-40 this week as recent Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian ports disrupted their loading schedule, Vark said.

The Kremlin, which views sanctions as a malign attempt to crush its economy, says its ships have the right to free passage in the Baltic Sea and that Russia is ready to respond to any attempt to stop them.

(Reporting by Andrius Sytas, editing by Terje Solsvik and Christina Fincher)