Finnish police seize vessel suspected of damaging underwater cable | Finland
Finnish authorities boarded and seized a cargo ship sailing from Russia on suspicion of sabotaging two underwater telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea, where a number of similar incidents have occurred in recent years.
The ship named Fitburg set out from St. Petersburg to Haifa, Israel. Finnish coast guard officers boarded the ship at 11 a.m., about six hours after the cable outage was first reported. 14 crew members, including many Russians, were detained.
The helicopter sent for inspection reported that the ship was dragging its anchor at the bottom of the sea bed. “At this stage it is too early to assess whether this was a deliberate act or an accident,” the Helsinki deputy police chief said. Heikki Kopperoinen said Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, some experts and political leaders have viewed the suspected sabotage of cables in the Baltic Sea as part of Russia’s hybrid war against western countries.
Detectives said they would interrogate the crew, which included sailors from Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Sailing under the appropriate flag from St Vincent and the Grenadines, the ship was taken to a port near Helsinki.
EU countries accuse Russia of using dilapidated ships belonging to the “shadow fleet” to smuggle oil around the world in defiance of Western sanctions. The squadron has been linked to previous cable-cutting cases and the mysterious appearance of drones in Denmark and Germany.
In January, NATO increased its naval presence in the region as part of an operation called Baltic Watch. This came after Finnish commandos captured another ship, the Eagle S, on Christmas Day 2024, which damaged critical infrastructure. A court in Helsinki later acquitted his crew on the grounds that the incident occurred outside Finnish territorial waters.
“Finland is prepared for various types of security challenges and we respond to them appropriately,” Finnish president Alexander Stubb told X on Wednesday.
Finland’s deputy attorney general, Jukka Rappe, said there were “strong signs of criminal activity” regarding Fitburg, but that it was too early to draw a conclusion. He added that there was sufficient evidence to launch a preliminary investigation.
The ship was located in Finland’s exclusive economic zone when it was detected by a border guard patrol boat and helicopter. Police said the anchor chain was found to have been lowered into the sea. Finnish police said they were investigating “aggravated criminal damage, attempted aggravated criminal damage and aggravated interference with telecommunications”.
The damaged cables were in the Gulf of Finland, between Finland and Estonia. According to Estonia, one belonged to Finnish telecommunications operator Elisa and the other belonged to Swedish provider Arelion. Services were routed through other cables.
Wednesday’s incident came as Russia launched a large-scale drone attack on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa. 6 people, including children, were injured when it crashed into four apartment blocks. Energy company DTEK said two energy facilities were seriously damaged.
Russia systematically targets Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, depriving civilians of heat and light in freezing winter conditions. Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said more than 170,000 people had no electricity after the Odessa attack. There are also serious power outages in the Kyiv region.
Meanwhile, the defense ministry in Moscow released video footage on Sunday of what it said was a crashed drone heading for Vladimir Putin’s presidential palace in the Novgorod region. Russia claims that Ukraine carried out a major attack with 91 UAVs.
The story has been widely debunked. On Wednesday, Ukraine’s foreign ministry dismissed the video as “ridiculous” and said Kiev was “absolutely sure” the attack did not happen, three days after the incident, Reuters reported. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas described the report as “baseless”.
