“The longer Russia wages war, the tougher our response,” High Representative Kaja Kallas declared this week after foreign ministers of the European Union formally adopted a new round of sanctions against Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The measures blacklisted 189 vessels belonging to Moscow’s so-called “shadow fleet”, bringing the total number of ships under restrictions to almost 350.

The following day, Poland made a startling announcement.

“A Russian ship from the ‘shadow fleet’ under sanctions was performing suspicious manoeuvres near the power cable connecting Poland and Sweden,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on social media.

“After effective intervention by our military, the ship sailed to one of the Russian ports.”