Russia is taking “more risks” in its protection of the “shadow fleet”, as Moscow rewarded a warship commander for firing flares at a Danish helicopter, sparking a diplomatic incident.
A Russian warship, the corvette RFS Soobrazitelny, fired two emergency flares at a Danish air force helicopter while it was tracking the vessel.
The incident took place in international waters in the Baltic Sea close to Denmark on Monday. Flares are pyrotechnics usually used as a warning signal at sea.
Denmark’s ministry of defence said the Fennec helicopter was carrying out “routine photo coverage of a Russian [warship], which was in international waters off Gedser”. The statement said the Russian vessel fired two flares, one of which “passed within a short distance of the helicopter”.
Danish media reported concerns that the flare narrowly passed the helicopter, which had its door open in order to take photos. Chief of the air force, Maj-Gen Jan Dam, told Berlingske the pyrotechnic “could have hit someone”.
Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen branded the confrontation “completely unacceptable” and said Russia’s ambassador Vladimir Barbin had been summoned to discuss the incident involving “so-called flares”.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen accused Russia of “behaving increasingly aggressively” and trying to “intimidate us”.
She added: “Russia is testing Nato and challenging it… Our response is to stand even more closely together and strengthen the defence of Denmark and Europe.”
The Russian ambassador initially responded by stating Moscow would “thoroughly investigate” the incident, while accusing Danish helicopters of making “dangerous manoeuvres”.
However, on Wednesday the commander of the warship was awarded a medal “for military distinction”. In a Telegram post seen by this paper, Russian defence minister Andrei Belousov said the reward was for the commander’s “skillful and decisive actions in preventing a provocation by a Danish air force helicopter”.
A vital maritime path for Russia’s shadow fleet
It is not known why the Russian warship was passing close to Denmark at the time, or if it was escorting a tanker from the country’s shadow fleet – sanctioned vessels used by Russia to transport lucrative oil exports under another country’s flag. Russia has been increasingly diverting warships to escort shadow fleet vessels around the UK.
However, the route is one commonly used by these tankers, with the waters around Denmark operating as a chokehold in the Baltic Sea for vessels travelling from the Russian ports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk in the Gulf of Finland.
Danish news site TV2 reported that “ship data shows that two Danish naval vessels and a Russian shadow fleet ship were south-east of Falster at the time”, a location close to Gedser.
The Soobrazitelny, a Steregushchiy-class corvette, was previously tailed by the Royal Navy’s HMS Mersey escorting the sanctioned oil tanker MV Anatoly Kolodkin through the English Channel in March.
The UK said at the time the two Russian ships separated at the western end of the Channel, with the tanker sailing into the Atlantic, while the Navy tracked the Soobrazitelny back eastwards through the Channel.
“Sanctions on the shadow fleet are hitting where it hurts – Russia’s ability to keep oil moving. Moscow is taking greater risks to protect that trade and each new confrontation at sea raises the chance of escalation,” said Gonzalo Saiz, a research fellow at the defence and security think-tank Royal United Services Institute.
“European governments take the risk of escalation very seriously when they consider detaining a shadow fleet tanker. Moscow knows that and its threats are designed to make every enforcement decision feel like a potential confrontation.”
Increasing escalation
The Denmark incident follows the firing of warning shots by the Admiral Grigorovich at a civilian British boat this summer, two days after the Navy boarded a sanctioned shadow fleet vessel in the Channel for the first time. Other shadow fleet vessels have been boarded under the European Union’s Operation Irini, which included seizing MV Sun tanker in the Mediterranean this summer.
Vladimir Putin inspects a naval exercise from the Marshal Ustinov missile cruiser in the Black Sea in 2020. The Russian leader is relying on the continued income from his ‘shadow fleet’ to fund the war in Ukraine (Photo: Alexei Druzhinin/Getty)Dr Trevelyan Wing, a researcher at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Geopolitics, said the increasing action from the UK and allies are a sign these countries are raising “the stakes, and costs” for Russia, but this in turn means “Moscow appears to be pushing back”.
The tensions in the Baltic Sea this week are the result of Russia’s “escalatory actions, and indicate Moscow’s growing irritation”, he added.
Dr Wing said Moscow is “dependent” on the shadow fleet to get three-quarters its oil “past Western scrutiny” and on to other global markets and called it a “critical source of revenue for the Kremlin”, the funds from which are funnelled to prop up Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The altercation between Russia and Denmark could see a shift in how the Scandinavian country approaches the shadow fleet problem.
“So far, Copenhagen has largely refrained from interfering directly with shadow fleet vessels… it will be interesting to see if recent events will push the country into adopting a more robust policy for dealing with the shadow fleet, as other Nato allies have done.”
The passage of shadow fleet vessels through the Baltic Sea and on to other ports means many of these illicit tankers pass by the UK, once they have traversed the waters separating Denmark and Norway. Exclusive data shared with this paper also exposed how more than 170 “shadow fleet” vessels passed near or through UK waters this summer, with a Russian presence in the English Channel almost every day this summer.
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