Overview
- Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom issued a coordinated warning covering the Baltic Sea and North Sea.
- Ships must sail under a single flag and carry valid class, safety and insurance documents or risk being treated as stateless under UNCLOS, enabling potential boarding or seizure.
- The signatories accused Russia of degrading maritime safety through GNSS jamming and spoofing and warned against AIS manipulation while urging development of terrestrial backup navigation.
- Recent enforcement included a French navy boarding of a stateless tanker after UK intelligence support, multiple U.S. detentions of Russia‑linked tankers, and Spain escorting an EU‑sanctioned vessel toward Tanger Med.
- The shadow fleet is described as large, aging and often underinsured, with estimates of roughly 1,500 tankers moving sanctioned oil and posing heightened environmental and safety risks.