MOSCOW, August 12. /TASS/. The European Union is incurring great dangers by acting against civilian shipping as part of Operation Irini, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in connection with the illegal actions of the EU against foreign vessels.

"By resorting to such actions, the European Union, as a result of the measures it has taken that are absolutely inconsistent with international law, is incurring great dangers," the ministry said, commenting on the Irini naval operation off the coast of Libya, which the EU uses for illegal inspections. The European Union, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, uses Irini to counter the maritime transportation of oil and other goods in Russia’s interests and arranges illegal inspections of foreign vessels, referring to the "adjusted" mandate of this operation.

"One recent example is the inspection of the Tao Payoh ship under the flag of Cameroon by the Italian military on August 2 in the Mediterranean Sea with the assistance of a Polish patrol aircraft and a Greek patrol ship. The Italian Defense Ministry explained the ship's stop by the need to verify its nationality, the ministry noted. "The events lasted two hours, after which the ship, suspicions against which were obviously not confirmed, continued to move along its route."

The ministry said that the goals of Irini, approved by the UN Security Council, initially included monitoring compliance with the arms embargo on Libya, collecting information on the illegal export of oil from Libya, as well as tracking man trafficking on the high seas.

"This mandate expired in May 2026. Today, Operation Irini is actually being used by the European Union to intimidate commercial carriers and obstruct the freedom of navigation. There is an abuse of current international legal norms and an expansive interpretation of their powers," the Foreign Ministry said.

"The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas calling illegal not the actions of the ships of the EU member states involved in the Irini, but routine maritime transportation ensuring energy and food security of developing countries, again demonstrates blatant disregard for the norms of international law."

The "flag check", theoretically allowed by the law of the sea, in this case is nothing more than a screen for settling political scores and implementing unilateral coercive measures that Brussels is trying to impose on the whole world, the ministry explained. "The verification of the vessels' membership in the so-called shadow fleet does not lend itself to any legal justification," it added. "No internal EU decisions can nullify the basic freedoms guaranteed by the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.".