Over 80 meters long, a dry cargo hold, and an owner investigated over Russian drone operations: the ship Sweden boarded off Gotland
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Swedish police boarded a Russia-linked cargo ship off the island of Gotland overnight, Swedish broadcaster TV4 reported, without naming the ship. The ship’s owner has faced investigations over suspected Russian hybrid and reconnaissance operations. Police later described the check as routine.
Russia’s war on Ukraine runs partly on ships: tankers carrying oil money and freighters slipping cargo past sanctions. European states have stepped up boardings, yet detained ships are often released within days. Washington, meanwhile, is weighing relief for sanctioned tankers. Some of these vessels are also suspected of serving Russia’s covert war on Europe itself. That ranges from cable cuts to drone flights over airports and military sites.
A night boarding off Gotland’s northwest coast
Police went aboard the ship off Gotland’s northwest coast in the night into Saturday, 31 October, TV4 said. “We are on board during the night, checking the crew and their travel documents,” Carina Skagerlind, spokesperson for the Stockholm police region, told the broadcaster.
The vessel is a dry cargo ship more than 80 meters long. Sweden’s National Task Force, the police’s elite tactical unit, took part, according to TV4’s sources. Skagerlind would not confirm that. “We have used the resources we needed,” she said.
Police later called it a routine border check
Later on Saturday, Skagerlind called it a border check on a ship that had been lying in a port on Gotland, Swedish news agency TT reported. “This is a routine assignment,” Skagerlind said. The travel documents raised no remarks, she added. Asked about the task force, she said the border police are responsible for the area and did the work.
An owner whose ships appear near drone alarms
The company that owns the ship has had its vessels turn up near drone alarms in several European countries, TV4 reported. Investigators suspect the ships acted as depots for Russian intelligence drones. European intelligence sources told TV4 the ships “most likely act in the Russian state’s interest.” The company has offices in Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave and says it recruits its crews there. The crew of this ship are Russian citizens, according to TV4’s sources.
Ships as drone platforms are not a new suspicion in Europe. In September 2025, Germany seized the freighter Scanlark over an alleged drone flight over a frigate at the Kiel naval base. France then held the tanker Boracay, linked to drones over Denmark, and it resumed its voyage about a week later.
Sweden’s earlier boardings
Sweden has boarded several Russia-linked ships over the past year. In December 2025, Swedish authorities boarded the sanctioned Russian vessel Adler, tied to North Korean ammunition shipments.
In March, the Swedish Coast Guard and police seized the Caffa, a cargo ship linked to grain stolen from occupied Ukraine, and a Swedish court later ruled that Kyiv can have it. A week after the Caffa, Swedish forces boarded the tanker Sea Owl I under a suspected false flag. In April, Sweden boarded the sanctioned tanker Flora 1 after a 12 km oil slick appeared east of Gotland.
Ukraine strikes Russia’s ships, with one exception
Ukraine treats Russia’s shadow fleet as a military target. Its drone forces have disabled 300 such ships in 11 weeks, Unmanned Systems Forces commander Robert Brovdi said in September.
Tankers carrying Russian diesel to the United States are off-limits, though. “Nobody is touching these ships for sure,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told journalists, Ukrinform reported on 28 October. The ships are connected to the United States, he explained.
Washington cleared Russian diesel blocked by sanctions in October. Three tankers are now carrying Russian diesel to the US. The first, Agioi Fanendes, loaded 40,000 tons at Russia’s Baltic port of Primorsk. Another of the three, the Leruo, is under EU, UK, and Canadian sanctions, the Financial Times reported, according to United24 Media.
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