HELSINKI: Authorities are investigating damage to an undersea telecommunications cable in the Gulf of Finland early Wednesday that occurred between the capitals of Finland and Estonia.<\/p>\n
Finnish authorities seized and inspected the vessel suspected to have caused the damage, the country\u2019s border guard said in a statement. Its anchor was lowered when it was discovered in Finland\u2019s exclusive economic zone.<\/p>\n
Helsinki police have opened an investigation into aggravated criminal damage, attempted aggravated criminal damage and aggravated interference with telecommunications.<\/p>\n
The cable belongs to Finnish telecommunications service provider Elisa and is considered to be critical underwater infrastructure. The damage occurred in Estonia\u2019s exclusive economic zone, police said.<\/p>\n
The ship\u2019s crew of 14 \u2014 hailing from Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan \u2014 was detained by Finnish authorities, local media reported. The ship, named the Fitburg, was flagged in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It had been traveling from Russia to Israel.<\/p>\n
Finnish National Police Commissioner Ilkka Koskim\u00e4ki told local media that investigators are not speculating on whether a state-level actor was behind the damage. Koskim\u00e4ki also said the ship had been dragging its anchor for hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinland is prepared for security challenges of various kinds, and we respond to them as necessary,\u201d Finnish President Alexander Stubb wrote on social platform X.<\/p>\n
The undersea cables and pipelines that crisscross one of the busiest shipping lanes in Europe link Nordic, Baltic and central European countries. They promote trade and energy security and, in some cases, reduce dependence on Russian energy resources.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Finnish authorities charged the captain and two senior officers of a Russia-linked vessel that damaged undersea cables between Finland and Estonia on Christmas Day in 2024.<\/p>\n
The Finnish deputy prosecutor general said in a statement in August that charges of aggravated criminal mischief and aggravated interference with communications were filed against the captain and first and second officers of the Eagle S oil tanker. Their names were not made public. The statement said they denied the allegations.<\/p>\n
The Kremlin previously denied involvement in damaging the infrastructure, which provides power and communication for thousands of Europeans.<\/p>\n
The Eagle S was flagged in the Cook Islands but had been described by Finnish customs officials and the European Union\u2019s executive commission as part of Russia\u2019s shadow fleet of fuel tankers. Those are aging vessels with obscure ownership, acquired to evade Western sanctions amid the war in Ukraine and operating without Western-regulated insurance.<\/p>\n
For the West, such incidents are believed to be part of widespread sabotage attacks in Europe allegedly linked to Moscow following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Estonian authorities are cooperating with the Finns to decide whether they should initiate a separate criminal case or move forward in a joint prosecution in the Elisa case. The telecom provider said its service was not affected by the damage.<\/p>\n
Another undersea cable, owned by Swedish telecommunications service provider Arelion, was also damaged early Wednesday, according to Estonian officials. It was not immediately clear whether the Arelion cable\u2019s damage was linked to the Elisa\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Martin Sj\u00f6gren, an Arelion spokesperson, confirmed Wednesday\u2019s cable damage in the Gulf of Finland. He said another cable, this one between Sweden and Estonia in the Baltic Sea, was damaged on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are actively working with authorities in Sweden and other countries to investigate the cause of the cuts,\u201d Sj\u00f6gren said in an email. \u201cWe cannot disclose any details about exact times or locations at this point with regard to the ongoing investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Repair work is expected to begin as soon as poor weather conditions clear. He said the vast majority of the company\u2019s customers were unaffected by the damage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HELSINKI: Authorities are investigating damage to an undersea telecommunications cable in the Gulf of Finland early Wednesday that occurred between the capitals of Finland and Estonia. Finnish authorities seized and inspected the vessel suspected to have caused the damage, the country\u2019s border guard said in a statement. Its anchor was lowered when it was discovered …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":91703,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91704,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91685\/revisions\/91704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}