Finland detains ship and its crew after critical undersea cable damaged

By Ivana Kottasová, CNN

(CNN) — Finland has detained a ship and its crew after a critical undersea telecommunication cable connecting the country to Estonia was damaged Wednesday, Finnish authorities said.

Finnish police said in a statement that the vessel suspected of causing the damage was found with its anchor chain lowered into the sea in Finland’s waters, while the damage site itself was in Estonia’s waters. The police later named the vessel as the Fitburg, a Saint Vincent and the Grenadines flagged cargo ship.

The Finnish National Police Commissioner Ilkka Koskimäki said at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon that all 14 members of the ship’s crew have been detained, adding that the crew are citizens of Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.

Incidents like this have become more frequent in recent years, raising suspicions they are the result of sabotage and prompting NATO to launch a project earlier this year specifically aimed at strengthening the protection of critical undersea infrastructure.

According to MarineTraffic, which tracks ship movements, the Fitburg departed the Russian port of St. Petersburg on Tuesday and was headed to Haifa in Israel.

After the damage was reported, Finnish authorities instructed the ship to stop and raise its anchor, and then took control of it, the police said.

Finnish media reported that the ship was seized by special forces police and the coast guard from helicopters.

Finland’s President Alexander Stubb said that the government was monitoring the situation closely and that Finland was “prepared for security challenges of various kinds.”

The police said they were investigating the incident as aggravated criminal damage, attempted aggravated criminal damage, and aggravated interference with telecommunications.

The cable that was damaged runs between the Finnish capital Helsinki and the Estonian capital Talinn. While the extend of the damage was not immediately clear, the incident was serious enough to cause faults that were detected by the Finnish telecommunications provider Elisa, which operates the link.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said he spoke to his Estonian counterpart Kristen Michal about the situation, adding that the two countries were cooperating on the issue.

Estonia’s Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs said in a statement that the country’s connections remained sufficiently backed up through other sea and land cables, ensuring the continuity of all services.

The ministry said that a second cable, owned by the Swedish company Arelion, was also damaged.

Pattern of disruption

At least 10 undersea cables have been cut or damaged in the Baltic Sea since 2023. Some officials from Scandinavia, the Baltic states and the European Union have pointed the finger at Russia. They say the incidents appear to be part of what experts say is the Kremlin’s hybrid war on the West.

Russia has consistently denied involvement, but some of the ships that have caused damage to the undersea infrastructure in the past were found to have links to Russia.

Last year, a Baltic Sea power cable and several data cables were damaged after a Cook Islands-registered vessel dragged its anchor through the seabed for more than 50 miles.

Finnish and European officials said the ship, Eagle-S, was part of Russia’s shadow fleet of fuel tankers, and Finland later charged members of its crew. However, a court in Helsinki dismissed the case in October, saying Finland did not have jurisdiction over the issue.

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