Cargo ship bound for Estonia's Sillamäe port held for hours by Russia
Russia's border guard detained a cargo ship in the Gulf of Finland that was headed for the port of Sillamäe. The vessel Västerbotten, sailing under the Cypriot flag, passed through Russian territorial waters, which ships have the right to transit.
The Police and Border Guard Board confirmed the detention of the ship.
According to the application Vesselfinder, the ship Västerbotten was anchored in Russian waters on Thursday. When looking at the ship's trajectory in the map application, it appears that the ship passed through Russian territorial waters before being detained.
At the same time, Russia, Estonia and Finland have an agreement that ships may pass through that location, because that route is safer for large vessels than sailing between the shallows in Estonia's maritime area.
In 2025, Russia detained the oil tanker Green Admire, which had departed from the port of Sillamäe. It was the first similar incident.
To avoid similar situations, the Estonian Transport Administration decided that in the future ships to and from Sillamäe will be directed through Estonia's territorial sea.
On Thursday afternoon, Västerbotten again began moving toward the port, and according to the Vesselfinder application, the ship was located in the Sillamäe port on Friday morning.
No explanation why the ship was detained
The head of the Transport Administration's vessel traffic management department, Are Piel, explained that although this was an unpleasant situation, it is not unusual.
"Every country has the right to exercise control over ships in its territorial sea, and apparently the Russian administration considered it necessary to inspect this ship when it passed through their territorial sea," he said.
Piel said that peaceful passage through a state's territorial sea is permitted for all ships, but he emphasized that this does not mean the state does not have the right to inspect the ship.
For a time, Russia imposed a restriction on passing through the area, but this has now been lifted.
Piel noted that although relatively few ships go to Sillamäe, Russia's territorial sea is not passed through just in case — precisely to avoid such inspection raids.
The Estonian Transport Administration has no explanation from the Russian side as to why the ship was detained.
The article has been updated with Are Piel's comment and the ship's location as of Oct. 2.
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Editor: Valner Väino, Argo Ideon
Source: ERR interview by Kadri Põlendik
