The German frigate that almost shot down the US drone decided to watch Russian oil

The German frigate F221 "Hesse" has come to the exit from the Gulf of Finland and has been near the passage of tankers with Russian oil for almost 20 hours. The ship is known for mistakenly trying to shoot down an American MQ-9 Reaper drone in the Red Sea, but did not hit.

A German frigate approached the exit from the Gulf of Finland. According to AIS ships, it is F221 "Hesse". The ship arrived just after 18.00 on September 24 and has been near the ship passage zone for almost 20 hours. The frigate is maneuvering, while tankers with Russian oil are passing by, among other things.

During the ship's stay at the exit from the gulf, at least five tankers with Russian oil passed by it, and four more in the opposite direction. Among them was Sirius, which is under US, UK and EU sanctions. Sometimes a frigate is only four miles from passing ships.

It is obvious that the frigate monitors the passage of vessels in neutral waters and monitors the air situation.

Earlier this year, part of the countries The EU has created a coalition that wants to prevent the export of Russian oil from the Baltic ports. Baltic countries, Poland and Scandinavia claims that most of the cargo is transported by gray tankers, the use of which allows bypassing the price ceiling that Western countries have set for Russian oil.

Estonia even tried to detain sanctioned tankers. However, only technical claims could be made to one of them, and the Estonian security forces refused to capture the second one after the appearance of a Russian fighter in the sky.

According to international maritime law, the capabilities of Western countries are extremely limited, and they can take forceful measures only in emergency cases — when ships pose a real threat to environmental safety.

In this situation, the NATO fleet is only watching the tankers with Russian oil, while The EU and the UK continue to impose new sanctions on the courts. By September, Brussels has already imposed sanctions on 550 tankers and plans to impose restrictions on 118 more vessels in the next 18th package of sanctions. This may affect the costs incurred by oil exporters, but does not stop the export itself.

The frigate F221 "Hesse" belongs to the class of air defense ships. And, obviously, it appeared near the Gulf of Finland and for tracking flights of Russian combat aircraft. Earlier, as stated in Finland and In Estonia, fighter jets escorted tankers, and last week Tallinn announced that they were entering Estonian airspace. The Russian Ministry of Defense denied this statement.

The German Navy ship is known for participating in the US operation to deter the Houthis in 2024. In the Red Sea and mistakenly fired at the American reconnaissance drone MQ-9 Reaper. As Bild wrote, both missiles fired went off abnormally and fell into The Red Sea.

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