NATO member Estonia said it would not arrest ships of Russia's "dark fleet" in the Baltic Sea due to concerns that the confiscation of oil tankers and other ships sanctioned by the West could lead to military response.
The risk of military escalation is too great" - Estonian Navy Commander Ivo Vark said.
Britain and many other European countries, including France, Belgium and Sweden, have stepped up efforts to seize old oil tankers that Russia uses for energy exports.
However, Estonia - the Baltic country at the northernmost point, located near Russia's main oil and fuel export facilities in the Gulf of Finland - is taking fewer actions than a failed attempt to board a Russian ship last year.
In May 2025, Estonia announced that Russia had deployed a fighter jet to NATO airspace over the Baltic Sea, while Estonia was trying to intercept an unflagged oil tanker, suspected of violating Western sanctions and heading towards Russia. The plane then escorted this oil tanker into Russian waters.
Since then, Russia has deployed regular patrols from 2-3 armed military ships in the Gulf of Finland, while strengthening its presence in other areas of the Baltic Sea, along maritime routes that Russian oil tankers often pass through, Mr. Vark informed.
“Russia's military presence in the Gulf of Finland has become much clearer,” he added.
According to this senior military official, Estonia only considers intervention in cases of emergencies, such as damage to undersea infrastructure or oil spills.
Mr. Vark also noted that in the Atlantic and North Sea, Russia's presence is very limited, so countries have more time and space to act because the risk of military clashes is lower.
According to press reports on April 10 on an Estonian navy ship in the Gulf of Finland, from this ship it can be observed a Russian Navy escort ship operating near a large group of oil tankers anchored waiting, preparing to enter a nearby Russian port to receive oil.
The number of oil tankers at the Vaindloo anchorage, belonging to Estonia's exclusive economic zone, has tripled this week, to about 30-40 ships. The reason is that recent attacks by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on Russian ports have disrupted the oil unloading schedule, Mr. Vark said.
Russia affirms that its ships have the right to freedom of navigation in the Baltic Sea and Russia is ready to respond to any attempts to prevent it.
In other developments related to the region, 3 Baltic countries including Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania issued a joint statement on behalf of foreign ministers, rejecting Russia's accusations that these countries allowed the use of airspace to attack Russian territory.
Baltic countries have never allowed their territory and airspace to be used for UAV attacks against targets in Russia," the statement stated.
The foreign ministers said they had officially rejected this accusation by clearly conveying it to the Russian interim ambassadors in Tallinn (March 27), Riga (March 31) and Vilnius (March 27).
In a series of attacks by Ukraine on Russian ports around St. Petersburg in late March, some UAVs flew into the airspace of the Baltic countries and Finland.
A stray UAV was also detected in Estonia on March 31. A total of about 10 UAVs are believed to have violated the airspace of this country.
