The Swedish Armed Forces said the incidents occurred on Friday in the southern and northern areas of the Baltic Sea. Swedish airspace was not violated during either encounter, it said.

NATO fighter jets were launched “to maintain security in the shared airspace,” the Swedish military said in a statement.

“The Russian actions are serious and constitute a recurring pattern of behavior that threatens both our territorial integrity and security,” Vice Admiral Ewa Skoog Haslum, Sweden’s chief of joint operations, said.
The interceptions involved Sweden’s JAS 39 Gripen aircraft, which are used for national air defence and NATO-related missions.

Sweden joined NATO in March 2024, ending decades of military non-alignment following heightened security concerns in Europe.

Tensions in the Baltic Sea region have increased since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with NATO members strengthening surveillance and air patrol operations in the area.

The Swedish Coast Guard boarded the 182-meter vessel Jin Hui on Sunday amid suspicions it was operating under a falsified Syrian flag, in what officials described as part of ongoing enforcement actions targeting ships believed to be circumventing Western sanctions on Russia.

The Swedish Prosecution Authority said the captain was detained on suspicion of using forged documents and breaching maritime safety regulations, specifically relating to inadequate seaworthiness. Prosecutor Adrien Combier-Hogg said the individual would be interrogated during the day, adding that coordination had been initiated with other national and international authorities.

Sweden’s Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin said the vessel appears on sanctions lists maintained by the European Union, Britain and Ukraine, underscoring concerns that it may be linked to networks used to bypass restrictions imposed on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine.

Western officials have increasingly focused on what they describe as a “shadow fleet” of aging, poorly insured vessels with opaque ownership structures, used to transport Russian oil and other commodities outside formal regulatory frameworks. These ships have raised safety and environmental concerns due to their condition and lack of oversight.

Sweden has conducted several recent boardings of vessels in its surrounding waters as part of broader efforts to enforce sanctions compliance and maritime safety standards in the Baltic region.

A fuel reservoir at Primorsk caught fire after a drone strike, Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the Leningrad region, said on Telegram. Separately, Ust-Luga operations were halted due to a drone alert in the surrounding area, the sources said.

Both ports, located in Russia’s northwestern Leningrad region, handle the bulk of the country’s seaborne crude oil and refined fuel exports from its western outlets, making them critical nodes in Russia’s energy supply chain.

The suspensions underscore growing vulnerabilities in Russia’s energy infrastructure as drone attacks increasingly target logistics and export facilities. While the extent of damage and the expected duration of the halt were not immediately clear, any prolonged disruption could tighten export availability from Baltic routes.

Transneft, Russia’s state-controlled oil pipeline monopoly that operates both Primorsk and Ust-Luga, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Primorsk and Ust-Luga serve as key gateways for Russian crude and petroleum products destined for international markets, particularly in Europe and beyond via maritime routes. Interruptions at these ports can affect shipping schedules, storage logistics and broader supply balances.

The incidents come amid heightened geopolitical tensions and a pattern of attacks on energy infrastructure, raising concerns over the resilience of supply networks and potential knock-on effects in global oil markets.