The hearing regarding the preventive measure took place at the Ystad District Court. According to the publication, the captain is suspected of using a forged document under aggravating circumstances and a number of other crimes.
On March 12, the coast guard boarded the vessel on suspicion that it was sailing under a false flag in Swedish territorial waters.
The vessel is on the EU sanctions list. According to the Swedish Coast Guard, in recent years this ship, flying the flag of the Comoros Islands (an archipelago near Madagascar), transported petroleum products between the aggressor country Russia and Brazil.
The Russian captain of the bulk carrier Kaffa, which was boarded on March 6 off the coast of Trelleborg, has also been detained. He is also suspected of using fake documents.
Context
Russia uses the “shadow fleet” to circumvent international sanctions when trading its oil. According to Bloomberg, it includes approximately 1,500 tankers that change flags and owners to hide links to Russia and circumvent sanctions imposed as a result of the war in Ukraine. More than 600 such vessels have already been included in the sanctions lists of the EU, UK and USA.
In January 2026, ships from the “shadow fleet” of the Russian Federation began arrest, expel from one's waters And grab. In particular, tankers associated with Venezuela and its oil US military seizes even though they change registration to Russian.
On January 13, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that sanctions pressure from Ukraine and international partners led to a stop at least a fifth of the vessels of the “shadow tanker fleet” of the Russian Federation.
