Shadow Fleet’s Flag-Switching Tactics Foiled by Swedish Coast Guard
The Swedish Coast Guard boarded a sanctioned tanker linked to Russia’s shadow fleet on 3 April after discovering a 12-kilometer oil slick east of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, then released it a day later—investigators found insufficient evidence that the Flora 1 had caused the spill, the Associated Press reported.
The boarding and the spill
Coast Guard aircraft detected the 12-kilometer-long mineral oil slick early on 2 April. The Flora 1 was nearby, sanctioned, and sailing from a Russian oil terminal on the Gulf of Finland. Early on Good Friday—3 April—operating under Operation Klöver alongside police, the Coast Guard boarded the vessel and escorted it to anchorage outside Ystad in southern Sweden, with 24 crew members on board.
This was the first time Sweden had traced a Baltic oil spill to a vessel already on the EU sanctions list.
Two were questioned and formally notified of suspected violations of laws against vessel pollution. Daniel Stenling, deputy operations chief at the Swedish Coast Guard, noted this was the first time Sweden had traced a Baltic oil spill to a vessel already on the EU sanctions list.
Designed to Evade
The Flora 1 is on both the EU’s and Ukraine’s sanctions lists. The EU designated it for “practicing irregular and high-risk shipping practices,” the AP noted. Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council added it in December 2025 with a ten-year sanctions term covering asset freezing and a full trade ban.
Since 2023 alone, the vessel had cycled through the flags of Sierra Leone, Benin, Palau, Djibouti, Panama, Gabon, and St. Kitts and Nevis, according to Equasis, an international maritime shipping database cited by Dagens Nyheter. Over its full history, the vessel had changed its name up to six times and its flag up to nine, the AP noted.
The vessel had been observed disabling its automatic identification system, the transponder that broadcasts a ship’s position to others at sea, and conducting ship-to-ship cargo transfers to obscure cargo origins. Its registered owner is based in Hong Kong.
When Boarding Isn’t Enough
In March alone, Sweden boarded the Sea Owl I off Trelleborg and the Caffa near the same port—the Caffa’s captain is now suspected of using false documents. In late February, Belgium and France seized a sanctioned tanker in the North Sea in Operation Blue Intruder. On 25 March, the UK authorized its navy to board sanctioned Russian tankers in British waters. The Flora 1 was the next in line.
Swedish authorities estimate that roughly 90% of the shadow fleet vessels have changed their flags at least once since 2023, making it challenging for law enforcement agencies to track and prosecute these ships.
Original Article: How do you prosecute a tanker that changed its flag nine times? — Euromaidan Press