An oil tanker transporting oil to Russia, which is suspected of severing power and internet cables in the Baltic Sea, has been seized by Finnish authorities.
The ship, named by authorities as the Eagle S, was boarded by a coastguard crew that took command and sailed the vessel to Finnish waters, said Helsinki Police Chief Jari Liukku.
“From our side we are investigating grave sabotage,” said Robin Lardot, director of the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation. According to our understanding, an anchor… has caused the damage,” he added.
The Finnish customs service said it had seized the vessel’s cargo and that the Eagle S was believed to belong to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of ageing tankers that seek to evade sanctions on the sale of Russian oil.
The Eagle S, registered in the Cook Islands, was suspected of causing the outage of an undersea power cable connecting Finland and Estonia on Wednesday.
It is also being investigated after three internet lines were severed and a fourth damaged, according to Finnish transport and communications agency Traficom.
Both the Finnish and Estonian governments held emergency meetings on Thursday to assess the situation, they said in separate statements.
“We are coordinating closely with our allies and stand ready to support their investigations,” said a spokesperson for the US National Security Council.
“We are following investigations by Estonia and Finland, and we stand ready to provide further support,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in a post on X.
Nations around the Baltic Sea are on high alert for potential acts of sabotage. The Balticconnector gas pipeline linking Finland and Estonia was damaged last year, along with several telecoms cables.
The European Union said it strongly condemned any deliberate destruction of the continent’s infrastructure: “We commend the Finnish authorities for their swift action in boarding the suspected vessel,” said a joint statement from EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and the European Commission.
Repairing the 106-mile (170km) Estlink 2 interconnector will take months, and the outage raised the risk of a strained
power supply during the winter, operator Fingrid said in a statement.
Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal said his country would continue to have sufficient access to electricity.
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The Eagle S Panamax oil tanker crossed the Estlink 2 electricity cable at 10.26am on Wednesday, a Reuters review of MarineTraffic ship tracking data showed. This was the same time when Fingrid said the power outage occurred.
The 658 megawatt (MW) Estlink 2 outage means only the 358 MW Estlink 1 remains in operation between the two countries.
United Arab Emirates-based Caravella LLCFZ, which according to MarineTraffic data owns the Eagle S, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
There has also been no comment from Peninsular Maritime, which according to MarineTraffic acts as a technical manager for the ship.