The tanker Flora 1 from the Russian shadow fleet ended up in the hands of the Swedes after the discovery of a large oil spill. The authorities are investigating both the false flag and the violation of EU sanctions.
The Swedish Coast Guard said it boarded the suspect vessel on Friday. He is subject to EU sanctions and suspected of an environmental crime following the oil spill in the Baltic Sea. TASR writes about it according to the AFP agency.
- The Swedish Coast Guard detained the suspect tanker Flora 1.
- The ship is subject to European Union sanctions.
- The vessel is suspected of leaking oil off Gotland.
- Tankers of the Russian shadow fleet often change flags and owners.
The tanker Flora 1 became suspicious early Thursday morning east of the Swedish island of Gotland, where an oil slick about 12 kilometers long appeared, the Swedish Coast Guard said in a statement. She escorted the vessel to an anchorage near Ystad in southern Sweden.
“After (the stain) was discovered, it was discovered that the vessel was on the EU sanctions list and a number of unclear issues regarding the vessel, including its flag status, were identified,” the coastguard said. The ship probably from the so-called of the Russian shadow fleet was carrying oil and had 24 crew members on board. If it is proven that it is sailing under a false flag, it does not have the protection of its state and the principles of maritime law do not apply to it.
They are taking the incident seriously
The so-called the Russian shadow fleet consists of ships that officially belong to foreign entities or fly under foreign flags. In fact, they serve the interests of Russia, bypass sanctions and often transport cargo from the occupied territories. They tend to be in poor technical condition and lack insurance in case of damage. They change names and owners to cover up their origins and activities.
“The government is taking this incident seriously, even though this time it is not a large-scale oil spill,” Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin wrote on the X network. “A larger spill could have devastating consequences for marine ecosystems and the Swedish coast,” he added.
The Flora 1 from the Russian oil port of Primorsk was bound for Santos, Brazil under the flag of Sierra Leone, according to data from the ship-tracking website Marine traffic. The Swedish Coast Guard has already carried out several inspections of suspicious vessels. It was, for example, the Caffa ship under a false flag on March 6 with a cargo of grain. She boarded the tanker Sea Owl I on March 12 and began a false flag investigation. Less than a week earlier, it intercepted another suspicious false-flag cargo ship in the same area.
