BERLIN (Reuters) -A tugboat has stopped a tanker carrying around 99,000 metric tons of oil from Russia from drifting out of control off Germany’s Baltic Sea coast near the island of Ruegen, emergency services said on Friday.
The 274-metre (899-foot) Panama-flagged tanker, called Eventin, and travelling from Russia to Egypt, had been drifting slowly and unable to manoeuvre since earlier on Friday, Germany’s Central Command for Maritime Emergencies said.
A tugboat was holding it in position and others were en route, CCME said, adding it was evaluating next steps. Evacuation of the 24-member crew was not necessary, it said.
“Russia endangers our European security not only with its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine but also through severed cables … disinformation campaigns, GPS jammers, and, indeed, with decrepit oil tankers,” Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in a statement.
“With the unscrupulous use of a fleet of rusting tankers, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin not only circumvents sanctions but also deliberately accepts the risk of halting tourism in the Baltic Sea region.”
Moscow did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Baerbock said the incident is an example of why Germany, with other countries, had called for new sanctions against Russia’s fleet of oil tankers in recent months.
(Reporting by Matthias Williams and Sarah Marsh, editing by Thomas Seythal and Rod Nickel)
