Can Denmark Use International Law to Fight Russia’s Shadow Fleet?

By Keith Johnson, a reporter at *Foreign Policy* covering geoeconomics and energy:

“Small European states, such as Denmark, [face daily](https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/03/26/russia-shadow-fleet-denmark-straits-shipping-sanctions/) the threat of an environmental Armageddon, as dozens of decrepit, single-hulled, barely insured Russian oil tankers wend their way through the narrowest of straits to the open seas. Often they don’t even have [local pilots](https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-russia-shadow-oil-fleet-denmark-baltic-environment/?sref=gAQr8Hwd) to help them navigate the treacherous waters, let alone proper paperwork, further raising the consequences of a disastrous oil spill.

What makes this traffic especially galling is that it is done illegally, in [circumvention](https://united24media.com/latest-news/osint-reports-uncover-spike-in-shadow-fleet-tankers-evading-sanctions-on-russian-oil-2085) of near-universal sanctions, and in service of a criminal state whose oil exports serve [to underwrite](https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/07/18/oil-energy-sanctions-russia-ukraine-war/) the extermination of a neighboring country. The United States and, [most recently](https://kyivindependent.com/uk-sanctions-10-russian-vessels-involved/), the United Kingdom have sanctioned a handful of those tankers, but the trade continues. On paper, coastal states could—and might yet—take action to stop that trade. In practice, Russia is a very big country that brandishes nuclear threats with abandon. 

‘The question is, what risk does that traffic pose? As a person living just down the hill from the strait, that of course poses an environmental risk if we have a problem,’ said Kristina Siig, a Danish resident of the straits, and, as it happens, an expert on maritime law…”

No, they can’t. The Danish Straights are an international waterway. All they can do is refuse to let them use Danish pilots, refuse to insure those vessels, and forbid them from docking at Danish Ports. Impeding their transit however, could be seen as an act of war.