Putin visits Russia’s Pacific Fleet – Screengrab Social Media/X Upscaled by Grok AI

Russia may retaliate against UK-EU ships in the Pacific or anywhere else in the world, Putin says.

With the Iranians in Hormuz, Houthis in the Red Sea, Somali pirates in the Horn of Africa, and the Russia-Ukraine war in the Black Sea, maritime trade is getting increasingly more dangerous by the day.

Now, another vector of escalations is arising, with the UK/EU seizing Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’ vessels, and the promise by President Vladimir Putin to retaliate anywhere in the planet.

Reuters reported:

“President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia will respond in kind if ‌European countries start to seize Russian merchant vessels and the commander of Russia’s Pacific Fleet said his forces were ready to ‘inspect and detain’ foreign vessels from what he called hostile states.

The comments, which Putin made as he oversaw navy drills in Russia’s far east, come as the EU tries to ​ratchet up pressure on Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, expanding sanctions against hundreds of vessels and detaining some ships and ​their crews for checks. Some European governments have said they are exploring tougher maritime enforcement measures against ⁠ships suspected of sanctions evasion.”

Putin: “We can see that the authorities of certain countries, in violation of international maritime law, are attempting to ​restrict the movement of our economic operators’ vessels, and have recently gone so far as to consider the possibility of seizing our ​vessels and selling off the property they have plundered from us. Naturally, this is nothing less than piracy and robbery. And if this begins to be put into practice, we shall be forced to respond in kind. And not necessarily in those waters where raids on our ships and vessels ​are planned, but wherever we ourselves deem it necessary and appropriate.”

While the actions taken by the UK/EU against the ‘shadow fleet’ have amounted to having the ships briefly detained and released, the latest sanctions allow EU members to sell the oil or cargo seized from the ships.

The Telegraph reported:

“Viktor Liina, the commander of Russia’s Pacific Fleet, described Britain and France, which have both taken part in shadow fleet seizures, as potential targets for the maritime retaliations.”

The Pacific fleet is gathering intelligence on Asia-Pacific trade routes, he said.

“Admiral Liina said some 1,001 ships had traversed Russian-claimed waters near the South Kuril Islands, a chain of desolate islands off northern Japan that were seized by Soviet forces in August 1945. Of these, he claimed 379 belonged to ‘unfriendly states’, including 26 vessels from the UK and nine from France.

‘We have the ⁠capabilities to inspect and detain vessels belonging to unfriendly states and their shadow fleet; inter-agency coordination is in place, and we are ready to tackle these tasks’, he told Putin on board the Varyag missile cruiser.”

Read more:

Italian Navy Intercepts and Boards Tanker From Russia’s ‘Shadow Fleet’ in the Mediterranean

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