Finland seizes Russia-linked cargo ship in Baltic Sea cable sabotage probe

Reuters reported the information.

Finnish authorities on Wednesday detained the cargo vessel Fitburg after it allegedly disrupted a critical telecommunications cable running across the Gulf of Finland. The ship, which was sailing from St. Petersburg to Israel under the flag of St. Vincent and Grenadines, is suspected of dragging its anchor along the seabed and damaging the infrastructure.

"At the moment we suspect aggravated disruption of telecommunications and also aggravated sabotage and attempted aggravated sabotage," Helsinki Chief of Police Jari Liukku told reporters at a press conference in the Finnish capital.

The vessel's 14 crew members—nationals from Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan—were detained by Finnish police for questioning. Investigators said the Fitburg was directed into Finnish territorial waters after authorities detected suspicious anchor-dragging activity near the damaged cable, which belongs to Finnish telecommunications provider Elisa.

The incident has raised alarm across the Baltic Sea region, where eight NATO member states have been on heightened alert following multiple disruptions to undersea infrastructure since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. European officials increasingly view such incidents as part of a broader pattern of hybrid threats emanating from Moscow, though Russia has denied any involvement in previous cases.

Adding to concerns, Estonia's justice ministry reported that a second telecommunications cable connecting Estonia to Finland, operated by Sweden's Arelion, also experienced an outage on Wednesday. It remains unclear whether this cable runs parallel to the damaged Elisa line or if the incidents are connected.

"I'm concerned about the reported damage... Hopefully it was not a deliberate act, but the investigation will clarify," Estonia's President Alar Karis said on social media platform X.

NATO officials confirmed they are monitoring the situation closely and maintaining contact with Finnish authorities through the alliance's shipping center at Allied Maritime Command in Northwood, United Kingdom. The military alliance has significantly increased its Baltic Sea presence in recent years, deploying frigates, aircraft, and naval drones to protect critical infrastructure.

This latest incident echoes a similar case from December 2024, when Finland boarded the Russian-linked oil tanker Eagle S, which investigators determined had damaged a power cable and multiple telecommunications links by dragging its anchor. However, a Finnish court in October dismissed criminal charges against the Eagle S captain and crew, ruling that prosecutors failed to prove intentional sabotage.

European Commission technology chief Henna Virkkunen said the EU is closely monitoring the investigation into the Fitburg incident, which underscores growing vulnerabilities in Europe's undersea infrastructure network.