A Russian coastguard ship, seen from the Arctic Sunrise.

Early this morning, the Greenpeace icebreaker Arctic Sunrise announced its intentions to bear witness to seismic vessel Geolog Dmitry Nalivkin in the Kara Sea, protesting the Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft and American oil giant ExxonMobil as they prepare to drill, including in areas overlapping the Russian Arctic National Park. The Russian coast guard replied instead, ordering the Arctic Sunrise to stop its operations and announcing that they intended to board the ship for inspection. The captain of the Arctic Sunrise responded, repeatedly stating that according to the law of the sea it would be illegal for the Russian coast guard to board the ship without invitation.