The Russian Ambassador to Sweden announced the release of the captain of the detained vessel Kaffa

The captain of the Kaffa cargo ship, detained by the Swedish authorities in March, has been released and is being sent to the ship, but the ship has not yet left the port. This was announced on April 22 by Russian Ambassador to Stockholm Sergey Belyaev.

"The captain of the Kaffa cargo ship has been released from custody due to the lack of evidence of the charges brought against him by the Swedish authorities. <...> The cargo ship itself remains banned from sailing until the technical comments made by the Swedish Transport Authority are corrected," the ambassador told RIA Novosti.

He added that the Russian authorities had sent a request to Stockholm for help in supplying the ship's crew with water and food. According to the embassy, 10 of the 11 crew members of the ship have Russian citizenship.

Capture zone: Canada joined the European Union's attacks on ships from the Russian Federation

However, Ottawa is unlikely to make direct attempts to seize tankers.

On March 6, the Reuters news agency reported that the Swedish Coast Guard boarded the Kaffa cargo ship in the Baltic Sea and seized the vessel. It was noted that the vessel was sailing in the territorial waters of Sweden under the Guinean flag. Later it became known that there was a Russian crew on board. 10 of the 11 members have Russian citizenship.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on April 9 that the Russian side would take measures to protect interests in the event of the seizure of domestic tankers. According to him, cases of piracy in international waters have been recorded in recent months.