Russia detains Greek oil tanker after it departs Estonian port
Russia has detained a Greek oil tanker sailing under the Liberian flag as it left the Estonian port of Sillamae on a previously agreed route through Russian waters, the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says.
In a statement published on Sunday, the ministry added that the vessel, the Green Admire, was undertaking a navigational route established in a deal between Russia, Estonia and Finland.
The Baltic nation will redirect traffic to and from Sillamea exclusively through Estonian waters to prevent similar incidents in the future, it added.
'Today's incident shows that Russia continues to behave unpredictably,' Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said. 'I have also informed our allies of the event,' he said, referring to other NATO members.
Estonian Public Broadcasting (EPB), citing the Transport Administration, reported that the Greek tanker was carrying a cargo of shale oil destined for Rotterdam in the Netherlands. It added that such incidents had never occurred before.
Vessels leaving Sillamae usually move through Russian waters to avoid Estonia's shallows, which can be dangerous for larger tankers, the EPB said.
The incident took place after the Estonian navy on Thursday tried to stop an unflagged tanker that was said to be part of a Russian 'shadow fleet' of vessels sailing through Estonian waters. Russia responded by sending a fighter jet to escort the tanker, violating Estonia's airspace.
The 'shadow fleet' is meant to help Moscow maintain its crude oil exports to avoid Western sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine.
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'I consider him a person that's, I think, been misguided,' he said after a moment's thought at his NATO news conference. 'I'm very surprised actually. I thought we would have had that settled easy,' referring to the conflict in Ukraine. 'Vladimir Putin really has to end that war,' he said. Putin continued his ground war during the week of the NATO summit, launching approximately 200 assaults each day, according to Ukraine's General Staff – a high average. Ukraine, itself, was fighting 695,000 Russian troops on its territory, said Zelenskyy on Saturday, with another 52,000 attempting to create a new front in Sumy, northeast Ukraine. 'This week they advanced 200 metres towards Sumy, and we pushed them back 200–400 metres,' he said, a battle description typical of the stagnation Russian troops face along the thousand-kilometre front. Terror from the air Russia continued its campaign of demoralisation among Ukrainian civilians, sending drones and missiles into Ukraine's cities. Russian drones and missiles killed 30 civilians and injured 172 in Kyiv on June 19. 'This morning I was at the scene of a Russian missile hitting a house in Kyiv,' said Zelenskyy. 'An ordinary apartment building. The missile went through all the floors to the basement. Twenty-three people were killed by just one Russian strike.' 'There was no military sense in this strike, it added absolutely nothing to Russia militarily,' he said. Overnight, Russia attacked Odesa, Kharkiv and their suburbs with more than 20 strike drones. At least 10 of the drones struck Odesa. A four-storey building engulfed in flames partly collapsed on top of rescue workers, injuring three firefighters. A drone attack on Kyiv killed at least seven people on Monday this week. 'There were 352 drones in total, and 16 missiles,' said Zelenskyy, including 'ballistics from North Korea'. 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Despite this, on Wednesday, Rutte told Reuters: 'The whole of NATO, including the United States, is totally committed to keep Ukraine in the fight.' On June 9, Rutte had told a discussion at the Chatham House think tank in London that a political commitment to Ukraine's future membership of NATO remained unchanged, even if it was not explicitly mentioned in the final communique of the NATO summit. 'The irreversible path of Ukraine into NATO is there, and it is my assumption that it is still there after the summit,' Rutte said. If that gave Ukrainians renewed hope, this was perhaps dashed by the European Union's inability last week to open new chapters in its own membership negotiations. That was because Slovakia decided to veto the move to do so in the European Council, the EU's governing body. Slovakia also blocked an 18th sanctions package the EU was set to approve this week, because it would completely cut the EU off from Russian oil and gas imports. Slovakia and Hungary have argued they need Russian energy because they are landlocked. Their leaders, Robert Fico and Viktor Orban, have been the only EU leaders to visit Moscow during the war in Ukraine. Zelenskyy has openly accused Fico of benefiting personally from energy imports from Russia. In a week of disruptive politics from Bratislava, Slovakia also intimated it could leave NATO. 'In these nonsensical times of arms buildup, when arms companies are rubbing their hands … neutrality would benefit Slovakia very much,' Fico told a media conference shown online on June 17. He pointed out that this would require parliamentary approval. Three days later, the independent Slovak newspaper Dennik N published an interview with Austria's former defence minister, Werner Fasslabend, in which he said Slovakia's departure from NATO might trigger Austria's entry into the alliance. 'If Slovakia were to withdraw from NATO, it would worsen the security situation for Austria as well. It would certainly spark a major debate about Austria's NATO membership and possible NATO accession,' Fasslabend said.
