Estonia has accused Russia of creating a "serious threat" to NATO in the Baltic Sea after a Russian fighter jet disrupted operations by the Estonian Navy to inspect an unflagged tanker that is on the United Kingdom's sanctions list.
The ship, the Jaguar, is believed to be part of Russia's "shadow fleet" that Moscow is using to avoid international sanctions imposed over its war in Ukraine.
Estonia's Navy said the vessel refused to cooperate when asked to stop.
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told reporters Russia sent a fighter jet on May 15 "to check the situation, and this fighter jet violated NATO territory for close to one minute."
He added in a post on social media: "This incident is yet another example showing that Russia poses a serious threat not only through its war in Ukraine but also to the NATO alliance as a whole."
Russia has not commented on the incident, but officials have repeatedly said Russian ships have free passage in the Baltic Sea and that any attempt to stop them is dangerous.
Over the past 18 months, there have been numerous incidents in the Baltic Sea in which telecom and electricity cables, as well as gas pipelines, have been damaged.
While attribution has often proved tricky and some of the incidents could have been accidents, some European officials have pointed fingers at Russia's so-called shadow fleet.
This refers to approximately 350 vessels of opaque ownership that are believed to evade Western sanctions on Russian oil by transporting around 80 percent of the supply, with nearly 50 percent departing from Russian Baltic Sea ports.
The European Union has imposed measures on half of these vessels by barring them from calling at EU ports or getting serviced in any way by EU companies.
The recent incidents highlight rising tensions in the Baltic Sea since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago.
In January, NATO and EU leaders agreed to launch a monitoring mission of the Baltic Sea saying Russia's use of the so-called shadow fleet poses a particular threat to the maritime and environmental security in the Baltic Sea region and globally.
"This reprehensible practice also threatens the integrity of undersea infrastructure, increases risks connected to sea-dumped chemical munitions, and significantly supports funding of Russia's illegal war of aggression against Ukraine," NATO allies said.
