Screenshot: Dobry Moryachok Telegram channel
Estonia accused Moscow on Thursday of sending a fighter jet into NATO airspace to stop the Estonian Navy’s attempt to seize a vessel in the Gulf of Finland suspected to have ties to Russia’s “shadow fleet”, Estonian news agency ERR News reported.
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna wrote on X that he had informed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the incident during the informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Antalya, Turkiye, calling it “another sign of continuing Russian hostility” in the Baltic Sea and “a demonstration of Russia’s direct link to the shadow fleet”.
The incident was reported by a Russian pro-war channel on Wednesday, when a Gabonese-flagged ship, the Jaguar, was heading to the port of Primorsk in Russia’s northwestern Leningrad region. The Estonian military tried to force the tanker to leave international waters and follow it into Estonian waters, where it would have been within its rights to detain it.
According to the channel, two Estonian patrol ships, an amphibious helicopter and a military plane took part in the operation. It said a Polish Air Force MiG-29 had also tried to stop the Jaguar. The tanker continued on its path to Primorsk, however.
Russian independent media outlet The Insider said the Jaguar appeared on Ukrainian intelligence and Greenpeace lists as part of Russia’s “shadow fleet”, ships the country uses to circumvent an international oil embargo.
On Wednesday, the Estonian authorities said that a Russian Su-35 fighter jet which appeared in video footage of the incident had violated its airspace, and the Foreign Ministry summoned the chargé d’affaires of the Russian Embassy.
Norwegian military analyst Thord Are Iversen wrote that after the incident, the Jaguar anchored near Gogland, one of Russia’s outlying islands in the Gulf of Finland.
In April, the Estonian Navy detained the “shadow fleet” oil tanker Kiwala in the Gulf of Finland, as it was en route from the port of Sikka in India to the port of Ust-Luga, in northwestern Russia. The Estonian military uncovered 40 deficiencies on the ship, mostly relating to paperwork, while the remainder concerned technical details and the ship’s seaworthiness. After the problems were solved, the ship was released.