“Aggravated sabotage”? Finland probes Russian ‘shadow fleet’ ship after undersea cable severed in latest possible attack

In the latest incidence of possible sabotage of undersea infrastructure, Finland is investigating an oil tanker – believed to be part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” carrying embargoed oil – for disconnecting an underwater power cable.

The probe follows several other outages of telecommunications cables, possibly involving Russia, and explosions at a huge gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea two years ago.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, Margus Tsahkna, appointed the damage to the Estlink 2 cable that supplies electricity to his country, the result of “attacks against our vital structures”.

He said they had become “so common” that it seemed unlikely they were “accidental” or “just poor sailing”.

“We must understand that damage to underwater infrastructure has become more systematic and therefore must be seen as attacks against our vital structures,” Mr. Tsahkna said in a press release. “In addition to evading sanctions, the shadow fleet is a threat to the security of the Baltic Sea and we cannot stand by and watch.”

The Estlink 2 cable was disconnected from the mains on Christmas Day.

The Prime Minister of Finland, Petteri Orpo, impart in a post on X, that the authorities were investigating the incident, but said that “the interruption of the transmission connection will not affect the electricity supply of Finns”. The head of Finland’s electricity grid, Arto Pahkin, said public broadcaster Yle that officials were investigating the possibility that the disconnection was the result of sabotage.

A Finnish coast guard official said reporters during a news conference where investigators are looking into the Eagle S, which is registered in the Cook Islands. Finnish border police officials EMBARKING the ship and escorted it into the waters of the Gulf of Finland, where it was anchored. Officials said the Eagle S’s anchor was not in place, adding to suspicions that the ship was involved in the disconnection of the Estlink 2 cable. Ship tracking website MarineTraffic shows that the Eagle S had significantly reduced speed when it went over the wire.

Eagle S was heading for Egypt after leaving St. Petersburg. While flying the flag of the Cook Islands, it is thought to be part of the so-called “shadow fleet” of Russia. Director General of Finnish Customs, Sami Rakshit, said reporters, “The presumption at this point is that it is a shadow vessel and the cargo was unleaded gasoline loaded at a Russian port.”

British publication Lloyd’s List defines the term “shadow fleet” as vessels that tend to be more than 15 years old, usually in poor condition, and whose real owner is unknown. The vessels are believed to be used to help Russia avoid sanctions on its oil products.

According to Lloyd’s List, Eagle S is owned by Caravella, a shipping company based in the United Arab Emirates. Representatives for Caravella did not respond to a request from The New York Sun for comment by press time.

The Estlink 2 outage follows outages of telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea. In November, two telecommunications cables connect Denmark and Sweden cut off. Investigators believed a Chinese vessel, the Yi Peng 3, which was sailing over the cables when they were cut, was responsible.

The Wall Street Journal rEPORTS that the ship is believed to have dragged its anchor along the seabed for about 100 miles while cutting the cables. The ship’s owner is cooperating with investigators, but the company declined to comment on the Journal’s report.

Swedish officials said On Monday, Communist China rejected requests to allow prosecutors to investigate the ship and that the ship had left the area.

While the ship was owned by a Chinese company, investigators were looking into whether Russian intelligence agents were behind the incident. In a statement to the Journal, the Kremlin’s press office said the allegations were “absurd” and “baseless”.

In addition to cutting cables, there were other forms of damage infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, such as the 2022 explosion of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

Officials expect repairs to the Estlink 2 cable to take months.