A Polish Bryza over a Mediterranean boarding. Sanctioned shadow-fleet tanker checked west of Pantelleria

The tanker Toa Payoh, subject to EU sanctions and counted among Russia's shadow fleet, was boarded on 2 August by the flagship of Operation EUNAVFOR MED IRINI in international waters west of Pantelleria. The vessel's master initially declined to cooperate, so an Italian team reached the deck by helicopter. The action was carried out with support from a Greek warship and a Polish maritime patrol aircraft.

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03 august 2026   |   00:54   |   Source: Gazeta Morska   |   Prepared by: Kamil Kusier   |   Print

fot. Ministerstwo Obrony Włoch

How the boarding unfolded

The check was conducted by ITS Thaon di Revel, flagship of the EU's Mediterranean operation. The purpose was to verify the vessel's nationality, which for ships is determined by the flag they are entitled to fly. Toa Payoh sails declaring the flag of Cameroon.

The tanker had departed Cotonou in Benin on 16 July, bound for Istanbul. After being intercepted west of Pantelleria, the master initially failed to provide the cooperation required. An Italian boarding team then reached the vessel by helicopter from Thaon di Revel and carried out the prescribed checks. The whole operation lasted around two hours and concluded without incident. Verification of the information and documentation obtained is still under way.

Italy's defence minister, Guido Crosetto, commended the ship's company for the professionalism, preparation and firmness shown, adding that the action was a concrete demonstration of Italy's contribution to Mediterranean security and to the European Union's efforts.

The legal basis was Article 110 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which permits a warship, where the specified conditions are met, to verify a merchant vessel's nationality and its entitlement to fly the flag it displays. The provision matters because the governing rule on the high seas is the exclusive jurisdiction of the flag state, and Article 110 is one of the few departures from it. It covers cases where there is reasonable ground for suspecting, among other things, piracy, slave trading, unauthorised broadcasting, absence of nationality, or that the vessel is flying a foreign flag or refusing to show its flag.

The Polish element

The Italian defence ministry stated that the operation was supported by a Greek warship and a Polish patrol aircraft, without specifying the type. All indications point to an aircraft of the Polish Military Contingent Irini, that is, an M28B 1R Bryza maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft.

The contingent is provided by the Polish Naval Aviation Brigade, the same formation that stands search and rescue duty over the Baltic. It numbers up to 80 personnel, and its deployment has been extended to run from 1 January to 31 December 2026. Crews operate from Sigonella air base in Sicily, and the thirteenth rotation is currently in theatre. Its remit covers aerial reconnaissance along with advisory and training work with selected allied forces.

Poland's involvement in the region dates back to 2018, when the brigade formed the first rotation under Operation Sophia. After that operation ended in March 2020, the tasks passed to Irini. During this period the Bryza was at times the only aircraft taking part in the operation, with individual rotations flying well over a hundred reconnaissance sorties each.

Experience from both missions has fed back into the aircraft themselves. On that basis, some airframes were fitted with SATCOM satellite communications, additional radios for navigators, and Automatic Identification System receivers. The last of these is critical for work of this kind, since it lets a crew compare the radar picture against the identities vessels are declaring.

The scale of the problem

The numbers explain why a single boarding is an event rather than a routine matter.

Estimates put the shadow fleet at a minimum of seven hundred tankers operating without credible insurance. According to figures cited by the German daily Die Zeit, around 17 percent of all tankers worldwide fall into this category, and the movement of crude and refined products earns Russia in the order of ten billion euros a month.

The Baltic is central to that system. Half of Russia's oil exports reach the market through this sea, which translates into roughly a thousand voyages a year.

The sanctions list keeps growing. Under the twentieth package, adopted in April 2026, 46 new vessels were added while eleven were removed, showing that a return to the group of serviceable ships is possible once conditions are met. After that adjustment, the number of vessels barred from service in EU ports stood at 632. Counting restrictions imposed by various states and organisations together, more than 1,350 vessels have been designated.

Set those figures against one two-hour boarding and the picture speaks for itself. A ban on entering ports and drawing on maritime services works where a vessel actually wants those services. On the high seas, what remains is flag verification.

Why this is a Baltic story too

The shadow fleet is a body of vessels, typically ageing tankers with opaque ownership structures, insured outside the Western market and flying the flags of states with limited oversight capacity. Their function is to move Russian crude around sanctions and the price cap mechanism.

In Poland the phenomenon is associated primarily with the Baltic, through which the main export route from Gulf of Finland ports runs, with vessels of this class passing regularly through the Danish straits. It brings a whole catalogue of problems with it: vessel condition, questionable third-party liability cover, AIS transponders switched off, ship-to-ship transfers at sea, and the environmental risk should a casualty or collision occur in a shallow, heavily trafficked area.

The Mediterranean boarding shows, however, that the problem is systemic rather than regional. The same class of vessel serves the southern routes, and the methods are identical: a flag of convenience from a third-tier register, an irregular voyage pattern, and non-cooperation when challenged.

The verification mechanism itself is worth noting. Checking entitlement to fly a flag is one of the few instruments states can realistically deploy against such vessels in international waters without resorting to more far-reaching measures. If a ship turns out to have no right to the flag it declares, it forfeits the protection that nationality confers, which opens further avenues for action.

The results of the documentation review have not been announced. From a Polish standpoint, what matters is that aerial reconnaissance flown by a Navy aircraft formed part of an operation directed at a mechanism that ranks among the principal challenges to shipping safety in the Baltic. The same aircraft type that stands duty over the Polish coast is working two thousand kilometres away on precisely the same problem.

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