Finland seize vessel suspected of damaging undersea telecom cable in Gulf of Finland

Finnish police said Wednesday they had seized a vessel suspected of damaging a telecommunications cable that runs between Helsinki and Tallinn in the Gulf of Finland several hours earlier

Finnish police said Wednesday they had seized a vessel suspected of damaging a telecommunications cable that runs between Helsinki and Tallinn in the Gulf of Finland several hours earlier.

Police did not disclose any details about the identity of the vessel, but Finnish public broadcaster Yle, citing the MarineTraffic specialised website, said the ship was the Fitburg, a 132-meter-long cargo ship bearing a flag from St Vincent and Grenadines, en route from St Petersburg, Russia, to Haifa, Israel.

The seized ship is suspected of being “responsible for the damage to the cable”, which is owned by Finnish telecoms group Elisa and located in Estonia’s exclusive economic zone, Finnish police said in a statement.

Part of the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Finland is bordered by Estonia, Finland and Russia.

Elisa said in a statement the cable damage had “not affected the functionality of Elisa’s services in any way”, noting that its services had been re-routed.

Elisa had early Wednesday detected a fault in its cable and reported it to Finnish authorities.

A Finnish border guard patrol vessel and helicopter located the suspected vessel in Finland’s exclusive economic zone, and its anchor chain was found to be lowered into the sea, police said.

The border guard instructed the vessel to stop and raise anchor, and ordered it to move and anchor in Finnish territorial waters.

‘Possible crime’

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

Deputy prosecutor general Jukka Rappe told Yle he had ordered a preliminary investigation into the case, to be carried out by Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation.

“The cargo ship is suspected of having cut the data cable in circumstances where it now seems obvious that there is also a possibility of a crime,” he said.

He did not however exclude the possibility of an accident.

Police said they were cooperating with several national and international authorities, including those in Estonia.

Energy and communications infrastructure, including underwater cables and pipelines, have been damaged in the Baltic Sea in recent years.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, many experts and political leaders have viewed the suspected cable sabotage as part of a “hybrid war” carried out by Russia against Western countries.

“Finland is prepared for security challenges of various kinds, and we respon