A senior Russian official has said Moscow could deploy its navy to protect Russian-linked vessels from potential European seizures, raising the prospect of retaliatory action against European shipping as pressure on the Kremlin’s so-called shadow fleet intensifies.
Nikolai Patrushev, a former FSB director who heads Russia’s maritime board, said on Tuesday that the country’s navy should be ready to counter what he described as “western piracy”.
“If this situation cannot be resolved peacefully, the navy will break any blockade and move to eliminate it. And let’s not forget that many vessels sail the seas under European flags – we, too, may take an interest in what they are carrying and where they are headed,” he told the Russian newspaper Argumenty i Fakty.
Patrushev added that any attempt to impose a maritime blockade on Russia would be illegal under international law, claiming that the EU’s use of the term “shadow fleet” had no legal basis.
His comments came as senior Ukrainian and Russian officials are met in Geneva on Tuesday for the latest round of high-stakes talks brokered by the Trump administration, as the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine draws near.
Ahead of the talks, Russia carried out heavy airstrikes overnight across swathes of Ukraine, inflicting severe damage to the power network in the southern port city of Odesa, which Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said left tens of thousands without heat and water.
The term shadow fleet refers to an estimated 1,500 ageing or lightly regulated oil tankers operating under opaque ownership structures to help Russia export crude to buyers such as China and India while circumventing western sanctions. More than 600 vessels have been targeted by sanctions from the EU, UK and US. These measures have helped curb Russian oil revenues.
Despite growing political pressure, European governments have struggled to develop a coherent legal mechanism for physically stopping or confiscating the ships, relying instead on sanctions, insurance restrictions and inspections. Western allies have warned that vessels lacking proper documentation may be treated as stateless ships, potentially widening the scope for intervention at sea.
The British defence secretary, John Healey, met European counterparts on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference at the weekend to discuss possible moves to seize tankers linked to Russia’s shadow fleet.
Earlier this year, the French navy briefly intercepted a tanker suspected of operating within the shadow fleet before allowing it to continue its journey.
The US has, in recent months, moved to physically interdict and seize several tankers linked to shadow fleets carrying sanctioned oil from Russia, Venezuela and Iran.
Patrushev’s comments, however, appeared to focus primarily on Europe, suggesting the Kremlin is wary of escalating tensions with Washington while delicate negotiations over Ukraine continue.
