{"id":4853,"date":"2026-03-08T08:24:48","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T09:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/?p=4853"},"modified":"2026-03-30T17:26:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T17:26:44","slug":"sweden-seizes-cargo-ship-with-ten-russians-on-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/08\/sweden-seizes-cargo-ship-with-ten-russians-on-board\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweden seizes cargo ship with ten Russians on board"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stockholm suspects the vessel of being part of what it claims is a \u201cshadow fleet\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sweden has intercepted a cargo ship believed to be part of Russia\u2019s so-called \u201cshadow fleet\u201d<\/em> in the Baltic Sea, the country\u2019s public broadcaster SVT reported on Saturday, citing the Swedish Coast Guard.<\/p>\n

Moscow maintains that the notion of a Russian-operated \u201cshadow fleet\u201d<\/em> is unfounded. According to Kremlin officials, the term is used to describe vessels that transport cargo outside the coverage of London-based insurance brokers.<\/p>\n

Russia insists that even if such ships carry sanctioned cargo, Western countries have no legal basis to enforce these sanctions on the high seas under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.<\/p>\n

The Caffa, the vessel in question, was reportedly seized on Friday in cooperation with Swedish police aviation and the National Task Force. Authorities are currently conducting searches and questioning the 11 crew members, 10 of whom hold Russian citizenship.<\/p>\n

The ship is listed on Ukraine\u2019s sanctions list and sails under the flag of Guinea, although the Swedish Coast Guard says its flag status remains unclear.<\/p>\n

According to tracking data, the cargo ship departed Casablanca, Morocco, in late February, bound for Saint Petersburg, and was expected to arrive on March 10. Built in 1997, the vessel had previously sailed under the flags of Malta and Russia before switching to the flag of Guinea, the data tracked by VesselFinder shows.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"File
BRICS needs strategic maritime cooperation \u2013 Putin aide<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Swedish Minister of Civil Defense Carl-Oskar Bohlin posted on X that the authorities have yet to determine if the vessel \u201cmeets the requirements for navigating in our waters.\u201d<\/em> Bohlin cited \u201cthe significant challenge posed by the so-called shadow fleet\u201d<\/em> as the reason for the seizure.<\/p>\n

The Russian embassy in Stockholm said it was in contact with local authorities about the ship\u2019s Russian crew members and offered the detainees consular assistance.<\/p>\n

The Caffa is the first cargo ship carrying grain to be seized on suspicion of sanctions violations. Previous interceptions by Western allies have primarily targeted oil tankers or other energy-related shipments, rather than general cargo vessels.<\/p>\n

Moscow has condemned the recent seizures of Russian cargo vessels, which Western countries have conducted under various pretexts.<\/p>\n

In February, Russian presidential aide Nikolay Patrushev called on the BRICS countries to demonstrate strategic maritime cooperation in order to defend global shipping lanes from \u201cWestern piracy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stockholm suspects the vessel of being part of what it claims is a \u201cshadow fleet\u201d Sweden has intercepted a cargo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4853"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4857,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853\/revisions\/4857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}