Russia has demonstrated its readiness to defend the “shadow fleet” for the first time, — Estonian General Staff

The incident with the Jaguar tanker has shown that the Russian military is ready to protect the “shadow fleet.”

This was stated by the Chief of the General Staff of the Estonian Defense Forces, Vahur Karus, reports ERR.

He called the incident that occurred on Tuesday, May 14, in the economic waters of Estonia, the first time that the Russian military has demonstrated its readiness to protect its “shadow fleet.” Then, in response to the Estonian side tracking the Jaguar tanker, a Russian Su-35 fighter jet violated the country’s airspace.

The Estonian Navy reported that they had been tracking the Jaguar tanker’s movements since Tuesday morning: the vessel, which is not registered in any country and is under sanctions by the United Kingdom, was moving towards Russia. By the evening, the Jaguar had entered Estonian economic waters. In the area of ​​the Estlink cable, the patrol ship Raju approached it and demanded to stop for inspection, but the tanker continued moving. While the Raju and the air patrol were escorting the ship, a Russian fighter jet appeared in Estonian airspace. In response, an F-16 was scrambled from the Emari base.

“For the first time, Russia is very actively demonstrating its readiness to defend its ship. At the same time, apart from the border violation incident, the Russian air force otherwise behaved professionally, i.e. they did not fly at low altitude, but rather stayed above the ship,” commented Karus.

Both Vahur Karus and Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur denied information that appeared in Russian sources that Estonian forces allegedly tried to board the tanker. According to Pevkur, doing this for the sake of checking documents would not be advisable, so the patrol’s task was to make sure that the actions of the suspicious vessel did not threaten the underwater infrastructure.

“We knew that everything was not in order with the documents there. To make sure that there was no threat to critical infrastructure, our vessels escorted this vessel out of Estonian maritime territories. There was no intention to detain it,” Pevkur noted.

Open information about the incident first appeared in Russian sources and only then in Estonian ones. Karus explained this by the fact that the Defense Forces do not report on current operations and do not tell the press about all their actions at all. He called the publication of the video by the Russian side information manipulation.

“There are all the signs of this, given how it was filmed, what was filmed and how quickly various Russian publications began to distribute this video,” Karus said.

Prime Minister Kristen Michal links the appearance of Russian fighter jets to the fact that Estonia is actively monitoring the activities of the shadow fleet in the Baltic Sea.

“The Baltic countries should closely monitor the shadow fleet. In addition, the 17th package of sanctions is being prepared in Europe, and Britain has announced the inclusion of this vessel in the sanctions list. Everyone should take into account that these vessels will be monitored, inspected and, if necessary, redirected. These actions will not allow Russia to freely and uncontrollably profit from transportation,” said Michal.

As a reminder, the Estonian Navy tried to arrest a Russian tanker under sanctions that was passing near submarine cables. The case is interesting because it is the first time that a Russian fighter jet entered NATO airspace to “protect” its vessel. NATO fighters also took to the air.