AS heart-stopping jet clashes play out in the skies and “ghost ships” leave a trail of sabotage, a tiny naval stretch on Nato’s border could be the tripwire that sparks all-out war.
Sandwiched between two European capitals, the Gulf of Finland is vital to keeping Vladimir Putin’s war machine afloat.
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But experts fear this is where a war between Russia and Nato could kick off.
Spanning just 80 miles at its widest point, the Baltic Sea chokepoint serves as a lifeline for Putin’s “shadow fleet” operations.
Passing through the gulf regularly, these ghost vessels have shady ownership details which are hard to trace back – making them ideal for Moscow to transport goods while avoiding sanctions.
Although the Gulf of Finland is a “tight space”, it has plenty of room for global conflict, international security expert Tom Keatinge said.
He told The Sun: “It’s obviously very sensitive from a Nato perspective. There’s a lot of military planes flying over that area… but it’s also very sensitive for the Russians.”
With Finnish capital Helsinki to its north, Estonian capital Tallinn to its south, and Russia’s second largest city Saint Petersburg to its east, the tiny stretch sees tensions simmer daily.
Russian foreign policy expert and former Georgian diplomat Natalie Sabanadze said the Gulf of Finland is a major flashpoint for war.
She detailed how the region has seen countless sanction-dodging ships passing through exporting Russian oil – vital to keeping Putin’s war economy on its feet.
Sabanadze told The Sun: “This has enabled Russia to keep its coffers full and to really dampen the impact of sanctions.”
But ghost boats coming through the gulf are also being used for much more nefarious purposes, Sabanadze revealed.
In September, French authorities detained a suspected Russian ghost vessel accused of helping launch drones into Nato airspace – with the tanker allegedly travelling from Russia through the Gulf of Finland.
And last December, suspected shadow fleet vessel Eagle S was accused of destroying five telecom cables with its anchor in the battleground gulf.
Sabanadze warned that if the naval inlet is left unchecked, more ships of the same kind will continue to stir trouble.
Whether carrying out reconnaissance missions or sabotaging undersea cables, Russian vessels will spark mayhem if the stretch is not properly clamped down.
But the conflict between Nato and Russia isn’t just playing out in the waters.
Just last month, two Italian F-35s took part in a nailbiting 12-minute stand-off with Putin’s nuclear-capable MiG-31 fighter jets after they breached Nato airspace.
The brazen stunt which unfolded over the Gulf of Finland threatened to spark World War Three.
Thanks to the bravery of Nato pilots, the three Russian planes were escorted down the Baltic Sea to the Russian enclave of Kalningrad.
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And in May, Moscow sent a fighter jet into Nato airspace during an attempt by Tallinn to stop a suspected shadow vessel passing through the gulf.
Estonia’s defence forces said the Russian Su-35 approached the tanker before circling over it in a menacing display of power.
Keatinge said: “The Russian Federation is ready to protect the ‘shadow fleet’… the situation is really serious.”
Outlining the path ghost ships take in order to access the rest of the world, Keatinge explained why the whole route needs to be closely monitored.
He said: “From the English Channel up through the Danish Straits, through the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland to the Russian ports – the potential for something to go seriously wrong there is very high.
“Whether that’s an oil tanker breaking up and the beaches of Poland being polluted, whether it would be a collision in the air between Nato jets and Russian jets.”
Keatinge described the high-stakes region as “a tight space”.
“Things go wrong in tight spaces if you’re not very, very careful,” he warned.
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Sabanadze agreed the area was a major flashpoint, but warned that Putin’s shadow fleet would not be swayed by European authorities clamping down on the critical gulf.
“You start controlling Gulf of Finland – they will start using another area,” she said, emphasising the importance of holistic European action in tackling Putin’s sanction-avoiding fleet.
She said: “It has to be a comprehensive approach to this problem all over Baltic Sea – and also the Black Sea.”
Putin’s shady ships prefer to exploit the Gulf of Finland – much more convenient than risking a journey through the war-torn Black Sea on Ukraine’s southern coast, Sabanadze explained.
Hammering home the importance of nailing European security in the gulf, Keatinge said Russia will continue to exploit the tiny space if it’s not adequately overseen.
What are Putin’s ‘shadow fleet’ vessels?
by Harvey Geh
VLADIMIR Putin’s sinister “shadow fleet” is stirring chaos in Nato waters – with claims the Russian tyrant’s ghost ships were involved in daring air incursions.
Brazen breaches into European airspace have been ramping up – and Western allies are pointing the finger at Putin’s notorious armada.
The “shadow fleet” includes vessels with shady ownership details which are hard to trace back – making them ideal for transporting goods while avoiding sanctions.
Nearly 1,000 of Putin’s ghost ships help the despot circumvent European trade bans – using opaque ownership structures and improper regulation.
And they employ a range of underhanded tactics to blindside authorities and get the better of Western allies.
Ship-to-ship transfers take place at sea, moving goods from one boat to another while avoiding the scrutiny of naval officials at ports.
Falsification is also rife – with mad Vlad’s armada lying about ship ID numbers and making up location data.
Displaying flags from countries with lower oversight is also a common strategy to throw off sea authorities, while some ships have even been accused of cutting sea cables.
European allies have blamed the fleet for aiding Putin’s wide-reaching campaign of disruption.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said: “Every week we have new incidents in the Baltic Sea involving Russia.”
Read more here…
He said the waterway from the Gulf of Finland all the way down to the English channel “gives a great opportunity for Ukraine’s allies to monitor those vessels”.
But he warned that it also provided Russia with “a great opportunity to cause trouble”.
“This is the issue that we face right now,” he said.
“These vessels, they might well be carrying oil, they might not be carrying oil, but they’re certainly up to no good.”
As Putin shows no signs of slowing down his war in Ukraine and continues to lure Nato into a “dangerous game of chicken”, the potential for escalation in such a tiny stretch of war packed with military jets and warship is increasing.
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