WARSAW (Reuters) -Poland’s foreign ministry and the military had no information concerning Tuesday’s media report of a Russian “shadow fleet” ship circling over the Baltic Pipe subsea pipeline, while the operator of the gas link said the line was operating normally. A Russian shadow fleet ship had been seen circling around the Baltic Pipe pipeline that delivers gas from Norway to Poland, Polish state broadcaster TVP World said on Tuesday, citing a foreign ministry source.
The Polish army operational command said it had no information about any incident on the Baltic Sea on Tuesday, Lieutenant Colonel Jacek Goryszewski told Reuters. Foreign ministry spokesperson Pawel Wronski told Reuters he had no information regarding the report.
Gaz System, which operates the Polish section of the pipeline, said the link supplying gas from Norway was operating without disruptions, although aspects that go beyond its operation “are confidential and fall under the jurisdiction of relevant state institutions and bodies.”
Several incidents have taken place on the Baltic Sea since 2022 in which underwater critical infrastructure has suffered suspicious damage. Baltic Sea nations are on high alert and NATO has said it will boost its presence in the area.
“A Russian ‘shadow-fleet’ vessel has circled over a stretch of a pipeline carrying Norwegian gas to Poland in the Baltic Sea,” TVP World, the English-language channel of public broadcaster TVP, said on its website.
The term shadow fleet refers to vessels used by Russia to move oil, arms and grains around in violation of international sanctions imposed on it over the Ukraine war. The vessels are not regulated or insured by conventional Western providers.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, European Commission Vice-President Henna Virkkunen and leaders of NATO member countries bordering the Baltic Sea meet in Helsinki on Tuesday to discuss strengthening NATO’s presence on the sea.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish, Karol Badohal, Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk and Marek Strzelecki; Editing by Ros Russell)
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