The dispute follows the EU’s decision on Monday to expand the mandate of Operation IRINI, a naval mission established to enforce the United Nations arms embargo on Libya. Under the revised mandate, EU military vessels operating in the Mediterranean will be able to stop and inspect foreign ships suspected of circumventing sanctions through the transport of Russian oil.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the move represented a threat to maritime security and accused the EU of attempting to intimidate civilian shipping under the guise of sanctions enforcement.

“The European Union’s deployment of ships from the IRINI naval operation in the Mediterranean to inspect or seize, as they now say, vessels carrying oil products would constitute a flagrant violation of international law,” Zakharova told a briefing in Moscow.

Zakharova rejected the EU’s characterization of a Russian-linked “shadow fleet,” describing the term as a political construct rather than a recognized legal category under international law. She argued that the planned inspections lacked a valid legal basis and risked undermining established principles governing international navigation.

She said Russia reserved the right to employ “the full arsenal of political, legal, and other instruments” to safeguard maritime security and protect the interests of shipowners and commercial operators involved in the transportation of oil products.

The EU has increasingly targeted vessels it believes are helping transport Russian oil outside Western sanctions frameworks imposed following Moscow’s actions in Ukraine. European officials have argued that tighter monitoring of tanker activity is necessary to strengthen sanctions enforcement and reduce opportunities for evasion.

The latest disagreement highlights growing tensions between Moscow and Brussels over the implementation of sanctions and the policing of maritime trade routes, particularly in areas where commercial shipping intersects with broader geopolitical disputes.