Authorities admit that “this is very new”
Until last week, a secret fleet of ships carrying Russian oil around the world had no clear connections with Kremlin. This changed when, in a dramatic climb, Russia used a fighter in an apparent effort to protect one of the oil tankers belonging to the fleet.
After the stoned military contacted the Jaguar – a tanker -free tanker sanctioned by the United Kingdom earlier this month – on May 13, in an attempt to make checks, a Russian SU -35 fighter began to fly over the ship, inside Estonia’s airspace, the Estonia’s defense forces confirmed. The military eventually escorted the tanker out of the waters of the country.
“This is very new,” Estonia Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told journalists during a NATO meeting in Türkiye. Russia is now “officially linked and connected” to the so -called shadow fleet, he added.
Others agree. “This seems to be a radical change in Kremlin’s thinking,” CNN Ed Arnold, senior researcher at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), a reflection group based in the United Kingdom.
Estimated in hundreds of vessels, without official connections to Russia, the “shadow fleet” includes many old and poorly conserved ships, which, in some cases, caused environmental damage and, according to some, were implicated in damage to vital submarine cables off the Baltic Coast. Russia has denied any participation in the damage.
Oils, many of them with opaque ownership structures, carry Russian oil for export in order to avoid western sanctions. As such, they themselves become a focus of new sanctions against Moscow.
The use of Russia for the first time of a “military action” in response to economic sanctions “is proof of the threat level we face in the eastern flank of NATO,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, to journalists during the Turkey meeting.
A video filmed from the Jaguar Bridge, which seems to have been edited, shows a radio call from the stonial authorities requiring the ship to change the route, with visible stoned military ships and aircraft around the oil company. CNN corroborated the details of the images, which were shared online by Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the Russian state communication channel RT.
A plane flies near a Russian tanker at sea, in the Gulf of Finland, in this capture of social networks, May 13, 2025
Later in the video, a single Russian SU-35 fighter advances on the tank ship, which was previously called Argent, according to the navigation records and the British government. In response, Portuguese F-16 jets on NATO mission in Estonia were sent to the area to monitor the Russian plane, NATO confirmed.
The jets are part of a reinforced presence of NATO in northern Europe since the total invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022.
“Probably what Kremlin is trying to do is retreat from it, hoping that the NATO nations will be scared of what happened,” says Arnold.
“There will be those who, within the born, be a little concerned about this and say, ‘Well, wait, do we really want to risk starting a broader confrontation with Russia because of a ship?’
Reaction to a greater presence of the NATO
For the stones, the intrusion of the Russian jet in airspace is proof that western sanctions are having an effect.
The incident “demonstrates that control and sanctions against the shadow fleet are effective and that these efforts must be intensified,” said Estonia’s defense forces in a statement.
CNN was unable to locate Jaguar’s registered owner to comment on the matter. The Russian Ministry of Defense refused to respond to CNN’s request for commentary. Kremlin has previously refused to respond to the accusations that he uses a “shadow fleet.”
In January, following repeated incidents in which ships caused damage to underwater infrastructures in the Baltic Sea, NATO launched the “Baltic Sentry” initiative to reinforce its military presence in the waters.
“We see the incident as a reaction to Baltic Sentry,” Colonel Martin O’Donnell, NATO spokesman, told CNN. “Russian destabilizing actions will not prevent us from acting within international law to maintain maritime security, security and freedom of navigation.”
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said a new packet of sanctions could be adopted soon after Russian President Vladimir Putin did not participate in the talks between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey last week. Merz had said earlier that Russia’s “shadow fleet” – “which operates permanently in the Baltic Sea with about 300 ships” – would be specifically aimed at this package.
In a possible gesture of retaliation, a Greek owner, Green admire, was arrested on Sunday by Russia while driving in Russian waters on a route agreed between Estonia, Finland and Russia, according to Foreign Minister of Estonia in X.
CNN contacted the ship owner and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comments, but got no response.
The stoned authorities have performed more than 450 ship controls in Tallinn -controlled waters in the Baltic Sea since last June, according to the Ministry of Transport. These waters include the Gulf of Finland, one of the main channels of Russian overseas commerce.
