Putin Warns Europe: “We Will Seize Your Ships Too”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a sharp warning to the European Union, threatening to seize European commercial vessels if the bloc goes ahead with plans to confiscate and sell off cargo from Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet.”
Speaking aboard the missile cruiser Varyag during Pacific Fleet drills off Sakhalin Island, Putin called Europe’s actions “piracy and robbery,” accusing member states of violating international maritime law. He said Moscow would respond “wherever we deem necessary and appropriate — anywhere.”
The row follows a new EU sanctions package passed last month that allows member states to sell oil and other cargo seized from tankers suspected of helping Russia dodge Western sanctions. Nine such tankers have already been detained across Europe this year, four of them by France alone. Sweden, meanwhile, is reportedly preparing to hand over a seized Russian vessel — suspected of carrying grain from occupied Ukraine — to Kyiv.
With tensions already running high over the war in Ukraine, Putin’s warning adds a new maritime front to an already fraught standoff between Moscow and the West.