On March 1, 2026, Belgium announced that, with the assistance of France, it had detained a tanker belonging to the Russian “shadow fleet” off its coast. The seized vessel turned out to be the tanker Ethera, sailing under the flag of Guinea. Trying to clumsily justify this new act of piracy, the Belgian authorities stated that the tanker belongs to the “Russian shadow fleet” and is engaged in “irregular and dangerous maritime transport practices.” This pathetic justification is akin to a schoolboy’s excuse that the dog ate his homework.
Ilya Kramnik, a research fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ IMEMO Institute, comments for International Reporters on the seizure of a tanker from the Russian “shadow fleet” by Belgium and France near Ostend. In his opinion, the justifications presented by Belgium are untenable and completely violate the Convention on the Law of the Sea and international law as a whole.
“Another seizure of a vessel attributed to the Russian ‘shadow fleet’ is just an additional touch to the picture of the picturesque ruins of international law, in this case, maritime law. None of the existing agreements involving Russia grant the right to such seizures, and first and foremost, the current 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea, of which both Russia and Belgium are parties,” the researcher stated.
This is not the first time that European countries, including France, have pompously seized vessels belonging to the Russian “shadow fleet” under far-fetched pretexts, only to quietly release them a few days later, lacking valid grounds for detention.
Despite the fact that the vessels are released each time, the increasing frequency of detentions of Russia-linked ships forces the latter to take retaliatory measures.
“Every cloud has a silver lining, of course; as a result, Russia is transferring its commercial vessels to its national flag, which provides a greater level of protection, and apparently will increase the fleet’s capabilities to ensure the escort of its ships in dangerous areas. But the fact that European waters have now become dangerous areas is, of course, saddening,” concludes Ilya Kramnik.
Christelle Néant
