The EU is preparing a large—scale operation to capture Russia's "shadow fleet" - Politico

The EU countries with access to the Baltic Sea are developing legal measures that will allow them to carry out mass detentions of vessels allegedly belonging to the Russian "shadow fleet". This was reported to Politico by European officials and diplomats.

According to them, the new legislation will allow to seize a vessel for damage that it allegedly can cause to the environment, and for allegedly committed damage to underwater cables and other critical infrastructure at sea. In the latter case, the reason for the detention of tankers will be the "fight against piracy," the interlocutors of the publication noted.

According to their information, a number of EU countries, in particular Lithuania and Estonia also plans to create a list of "reliable" marine insurers: if the ship is insured by a company not included in this list, it will be detained, TASS reports.