British Defense Secretary John Healey met with counterparts from Baltic and Nordic nations to discuss seizing oil tankers linked to Russia’s shadow fleet, as Europe seeks to tighten curbs on Moscow’s war economy nearly four years after its invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg reports.
The meeting of the Joint Expeditionary Force, a group of 10 nations with a shared commitment to the North Atlantic and Baltic Sea, took place on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, according to one of the participants and people familiar with the matter.
The gathering underscored a growing willingness among allied nations to do more to squeeze revenue funding Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Putin’s forces have made costly but steady gains in Ukraine in recent months.
“The atmosphere and the understanding was that we need to be more proactive,” Estonia’s Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said in an interview after joining the gathering. “The message is that the countries who give flags to the shadow fleet vessels need to know that there are measures that can be taken by other countries.”
More discussion will be needed before any decision is made, Pevkur said. Some members remain cautious given a “fear of escalation,” Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said in a separate interview.
The full report is here.
