Finland Seizes Russian Oil Tanker After Suspected Undersea Fiber-Optic Cable Sabotage

Finnish authorities seized the Russian oil tanker Eagle S after the country’s police opened a criminal investigation into the vessel’s possible involvement in another cutting of undersea power and communications cables in the Baltic Sea on Christmas Day, news agencies are reporting.

Finnish police and border guards boarded the vessel and took over the command bridge, Helsinki Police Chief Jari Liukku told a news conference. The vessel was held in Finnish territorial waters, police told The Associated Press, as it investigates the matter as a case of “aggravated criminal mischief.”

Politico reported that the tanker carried 35,000 tons of unleaded petrol that had been loaded in Russian ports. It slowed significantly at the time the submarine cable, known as Estlink 2, was damaged.

An anchor dragged across the cables may have caused the damage.

Four other telecommunications cables between Finland and Estonia and between Finland and Germany were also damaged in the Christmas Day incident involving the tanker that was bound for Egypt.

It’s unclear how long it will take to repair the cables, but Finnish and Estonian officials said energy transmission is continuing.

The damaging of Estlink 2 is the latest incident in the Baltic Sea involving the breaking of undersea infrastructure.

“Three cases in one year cannot be a coincidence,” Finnish President Alexander Stubb said in a press conference on Friday.

The incident resembles a similar one in November, when a Chinese bulk carrier on two occasions may have dragged an anchor across data cables in the Baltic.

In its response to the Christmas Day breach, Estonia announced it would place its navy “close to Estlink 1 to defend and secure our energy connection with Finland.”

Estonia left the door open for joint patrols with Finland and other NATO nations to protect the Baltic’s undersea data, communications and energy cables.

Eagle S carries a Cook Islands flag, but Finnish and European Union authorities describe it as part of Moscow’s “shadow fleet” of aging tankers carrying Russian oil to foreign markets to avoid economic sanctions. The sanctions were imposed following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The Chinese bulk carrier linked to last month’s suspicious breach of two undersea fiber optic communications cables in the Baltic Sea is now on its way to Port Said, Egypt.

The status of the Swedish investigation into the incidents to determine whether they were accidental or deliberate is unclear. At the time, Sweden announced it had launched a criminal investigation into the breaches.

Having sat motionless for more than a month, the Yi Ping 3 was underway on Dec. 21. With Chinese officials aboard the ship two days earlier, inspectors from Sweden, Finland and Denmark were allowed to board it in a diplomatic standoff in the Danish exclusive economic zone.

What, if anything, was discovered during the investigation into the boarding is unknown.

“We are content with the visit onboard, which was relatively open and transparent and we had the possibility to see what we wanted to see and to talk to the crew members that we wanted to talk with,” said Jonas Backstrand, the chair of Sweden’s accident investigation authority, as reported by Reuters.

Officials did not board Yi Ping 3 earlier because of the “freedom of navigation” right allotted to vessels operating in international waters, according to Reuters. This means that ships bearing the flag of another country may not be interfered with by other states during that transit.

Denmark helped broker a compromise that allowed the European nations to send representatives aboard the ship, Reuters reported. Sweden’s accident investigation authority said it inspected the vessel alongside a similar Chinese agency, while police officers from Finland, Germany, Sweden and Denmark were present as observers.

Sweden’s prime minister asked the ship’s commander, believed to be Russian, to return to Swedish waters to facilitate the investigation, USNI News reported in late November. An anchor dragging across the cables is believed to have caused the breaches. The breaching of the cables – one linking Finland and Germany and the other Sweden and Lithuania – occurred in a day’s span between Nov. 17 and 18.

“We’re not making any accusations, but we seek clarity on what has happened,” Ulf Kristersson said at a press conference. He noted that Swedish authorities have been in contact with Yi Peng 3, which left the Russian port of Ust Luga on Nov. 15.

Following the cable disruption, China’s Foreign Ministry said it’s maintaining “smooth communication” with all parties involved, which includes Denmark, Lithuania and Germany.

In a joint statement shortly after discovering the breach, the German and Swedish governments said they were investigating “an incident [that] immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage.” Europe’s security is threatened by Russia’s war against Ukraine and “hybrid warfare by malicious actors,” the joint statement said, without naming the actors.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius later said that “no one believes that these cables were cut accidentally” after a rupture in a 730-mile cable linking Germany and Finland.

“We have to state, without knowing specifically who it came from, that it is a ‘hybrid’ action,” he said. “And we also have to assume, without knowing it yet, that it is sabotage.”

Swedish coast guard officials said they continue to track the bulk carrier, Reuters reported earlier this week.