Estonia Seizes Container Ship Bound for Russia in Major Gulf of Finland Security Operation

Estonia has detained a Bahamas-flagged container ship in the Gulf of Finland after a multi-agency operation involving police special forces, naval vessels, and aerial support, Estonian Public Broadcaster (ERR) reported on February 3.

The vessel, Baltic Spirit, was intercepted while en route to Russia’s St. Petersburg. Estonian authorities confirmed that a special operations unit from the national police, known as K-Commando, boarded the ship and detained all 23 crew members, all of whom were identified as Russian citizens.

The operation involved around 50 personnel drawn from multiple Estonian agencies, including the Police and Border Guard Board, the Transport Administration, the State Fleet, and the Tax and Customs Board.

At sea, the operation was supported by Estonian Navy vessels Raju and Admiral Cowan, as well as the state fleet’s pilot boat Ahto. A Police and Border Guard rescue helicopter provided aerial cover during the boarding.

Estonia’s Tax and Customs Board said the ship is not part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” and is not currently under European Union sanctions. Officials stressed that the detention was carried out due to suspected links to smuggling, not sanctions enforcement.

An investigation is now underway to determine the nature of the suspected violations and whether illicit cargo was involved.

According to Estonian authorities, Baltic Spirit was traveling from Ecuador to St. Petersburg and entered Estonia’s territorial waters to refuel. The initial customs inspection took place while the vessel was anchored at an officially designated anchorage.

Officials noted that this was the largest and most complex maritime interdiction operation ever conducted by Estonia, marking the first time such a broad mix of special forces, naval assets, aviation, and civilian agencies were deployed together to seize a vessel at sea.

Estonia’s heightened activity in the Gulf of Finland follows a series of security incidents involving undersea infrastructure, including the 2023 damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline, which sharply increased regional vigilance in one of Europe’s most sensitive maritime corridors.

Earlier, Malaysian authorities detained two shadow fleet oil tankers believed to be involved in covert ship-to-ship transfers used to disguise the origin of crude oil, seizing cargo worth hundreds of millions of dollars during an overnight maritime operation off the coast of Penang.

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