Estonia attempts to detain “civilian vessel” in Gulf of Finland, ship confirmed as member of Russia’s “shadow fleet”

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Earlier today, in the Gulf of Finland, multiple ships of the Estonian Navy attempted to force the civilian vessel Jaguar to change course and enter the country’s territorial sea, according to Russian pro-war Telegram channels Dobry Moryachok (lit. “Kind Sailor”) and RaZved_DoZor. According to these reports, the Jaguar, which bears the flag of Gabon, was sailing in international waters at the time of the incident.

The channels claim that Estonia deployed significant resources for the operation, including the patrol boat Raju (confirmed via MarineTraffic data), the patrol boat Kurvits, an amphibious helicopter, and a PZL M28 aircraft. NATO aircraft — specifically Polish Air Force MiG-29s — were also reportedly involved in the attempted interception. The channels shared videos allegedly filmed by Jaguar crew members as evidence.

The Insider was able to confirm, using Sentinel navigation charts and data from tracking service MarineTraffic, that Jaguar was indeed located in neutral waters during its encounter with the Estonian patrol boat Kurvits.

However, the video shared by the pro-Russian Telegram channels shows coordinates on the vessel’s navigation display indicating that, at the time of filming, the ship was positioned just south of the neutral waters boundary — within Estonia’s territorial waters. Estonian naval vessels then continued tracking the Jaguar as it moved into international waters.

The vessel is listed by Ukrainian intelligence and the international NGO Greenpeace as part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” — a collection of poorly maintained, aging tankers that are used to transport crude oil above the $60-per-barrel price cap set in December 2022 by the G7 countries, the EU, and Australia. The fleet has allowed the Kremlin to continue to line its coffers and finance the ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which entered its fourth year in February 2025.