Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on May 21, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Russia vows to protect its Baltic Sea ships following an Estonian attempt to seize a tanker, escalating tensions in the region.
MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russia would defend its ships using the Baltic Sea with all means available and that a failed Estonian attempt to seize a tanker there recently showed that Moscow could respond with tough action if it had to.
Estonia said on Thursday last week that Moscow had briefly sent a fighter jet into NATO airspace over the Baltic Sea during an Estonian attempt to stop a Russian-bound oil tanker thought to be part of a "shadow fleet" defying Western sanctions on Moscow.
Russia, the world's second-largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, on Sunday then detained a Greek-owned oil tanker in Russian waters after it had left an Estonian port, Estonian public broadcaster ERR reported on Tuesday.
The detention of the vessel, since released by Russia, fuelled concerns about potential shipping disruption in busy Baltic sea lanes used to transport oil.
Asked what Russia could do to protect its shipping interests in the Baltic Sea from what Moscow has described as hostile action from EU member states and Britain, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters:
"As the latest events related to the attempted pirate attack on one of the tankers showed, Russia demonstrated it is capable of responding quite harshly."
Peskov said Russia was ready to use "all means" at its disposal in future to respond to such incidents within the framework of international law and had a wide range of response options to choose from.
A spokeswoman for Russia's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday accused NATO of carrying out what she called aggressive actions in the Baltic Sea that impeded the freedom of shipping after Estonia tried and failed to seize the Russia-bound tanker.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Anastasia Teterevleva; editing by Andrew Osborn/Guy Faulconbridge)
The Kremlin stated that Russia would defend its ships in the Baltic Sea using all means available.
A failed Estonian attempt to seize a Russian-bound oil tanker recently escalated tensions, leading to Russia's strong response.
Russia detained a Greek-owned oil tanker after it left an Estonian port, which raised concerns about potential shipping disruptions.
Peskov indicated that Russia is prepared to use all means at its disposal to protect its shipping interests in the Baltic Sea.
A spokeswoman for Russia's Foreign Ministry accused NATO of aggressive actions that impeded the freedom of shipping in the Baltic Sea.
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