“The crew of an oil tanker suspected of sabotaging submarine cables in the Baltic Sea was preparing to damage other cables and pipelines, but the vessel was detained”, — write: epravda.com.ua
The crew of an oil tanker suspected of sabotaging submarine cables in the Baltic Sea was preparing to damage other cables and pipelines, but the vessel was detained, the head of the Finnish investigation said, Reuters writes. On December 26, 2024, the Finnish authorities detained the Eagle S oil tanker, which was transporting Russian oil. The vessel is suspected of damaging the Estlink 2 power line between Finland and Estonia, as well as four telecommunications cables, dragging the anchor over the seabed for more than 100 km. The head of the investigation, Risto Lohi of the National Bureau of Investigation, told Reuters that the vessel was threatening to damage another power cable, Estlink 1, as well as the BalticConnector gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia at the time of its detention.Advertisement: “There was an almost immediate threat that other cables or pipelines connected to our critical underwater infrastructure could have been damaged,” Lohey said. Lohi also said that the ninth member of the ship’s crew was put on the list of suspects and banned from leaving the country. Finland announced earlier this month that eight of the 24 crew members were under a travel ban. The ship’s captain is a citizen of Georgia, and the crew consists of citizens of India and Georgia. In another incident, Finland and other Baltic Sea countries suspect the Chinese cargo ship Yi Peng 3 of damaging two underwater fiber-optic cables in November by dragging an anchor through the seabed.Advertisement: Recall: Finnish authorities are investigating an oil tanker that is part of a shadowy of the Russian Navy to see if he had cut the electric cable between Finland and Estonia. Finland has been granted permission to detain a detained “shadow fleet” tanker that damaged a power cable and four communications cables in the Baltic Sea last week, a court has ruled. The Finnish authorities declared that the Eagle S tanker of the “shadow fleet” of the Russian Federation, which damaged underwater cables in the Baltic Sea, was unseaworthy.