Public television station SVT quoted Coast Guard sources as saying that the ship named Caffa was intercepted on March 7 in coordination with the air police and national special forces.
Swedish authorities are searching the ship and questioning 11 crew members, including 10 Russian nationals. This is seen as the latest move in Western countries' efforts to tighten transport operations suspected of evading sanctions related to Russia.
According to maritime tracking data, the Caffa ship departed from Casablanca, Morocco at the end of February and was en route to Saint Petersburg, Russia. The ship was built in 1997 and once hung the Malta and Russian flags before moving to fly the Guinean flag.
However, the Swedish Coast Guard said that the flag registration status of the ship is still unclear. This ship is also on the sanctions list announced by Ukraine earlier.
Swedish Minister of Civil Defense Carl-Oskar Bohlin said that authorities are assessing whether the ship meets the conditions for moving in the country's waters. He emphasized that the "dark fleet" believed to be related to Russia is posing a major challenge to European maritime security.
The term "dark fleet" is often used by the West to refer to transport ships suspected of transporting goods, especially oil, to evade international sanctions. However, Russia has repeatedly rejected this concept.
Moscow believes that the "dark fleet" is a political term to describe transport ships operating outside the insurance scope of insurance brokerage companies based in London.
According to Russia, even if these ships transport sanctioned goods, Western countries do not have a legal basis to enforce sanctions in international waters, as stipulated by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The Russian Embassy in Stockholm said it is contacting Swedish authorities to monitor the situation of Russian sailors and provide necessary consular assistance.
Notably, this is believed to be the first grain ship to be blocked on suspicion of violating sanctions. Previously, ship blockades carried out by the West were mainly aimed at oil tankers or energy transport ships.
Russia has repeatedly condemned the seizures of cargo ships related to this country, saying that they are politically motivated. In February, Russian Presidential Assistant Nikolay Patrushev even called on BRICS countries to strengthen strategic cooperation at sea to protect global shipping routes from what he called "Western piracy".
