STOCKHOLM, May 3 (Reuters) – Sweden’s coast guard said on Sunday it had seized a tanker in the Baltic Sea that is allegedly part of Russia’s ‘ghost fleet’, in the latest in a series of similar actions carried out in recent months by authorities.
In a statement, the coast guard said it, together with police, boarded the Syrian-flagged ship Jin Hui in Swedish territorial waters south of Trelleborg, launching a preliminary investigation.
‘The coast guard suspects that the vessel is sailing under a false flag as there are a number of irregularities in relation to the status of its flag and therefore (it) does not meet seaworthiness requirements as set out in international regulations and agreements,’ it said.
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The coast guard also said that the ship, whose fate was unclear, was on several sanctions lists, including those of the European Union and the United Kingdom. It is believed the ship was not carrying any cargo.
Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin said on X that the vessel was suspected of belonging to the so-called Russian ‘ghost fleet’, made up of vessels that use different flags to evade sanctions.
European countries have intensified their efforts to disrupt the traffic of the ‘ghost fleet’, used by Moscow to finance its four-year war against Ukraine. Russia classified these measures as hostile.
This year, Sweden has so far detained five vessels on suspicion of various crimes, including oil spills and sailing under a false flag. The country opened criminal proceedings against some of the crew.
