Finnish authorities detained an oil tanker suspected of damaging vital undersea cables
According to The New York Times, Finnish officials seized an oil tanker on Thursday on suspicion of causing damage to vital underwater cables. There are hints that the vessel could be connected to Russia’s “shadow fleet,” which is intended to evade Western sanctions.
Finnish police acknowledged in a statement that they boarded the Eagle S tanker when it was in Finnish seas. When it was stopped, the Cook Islands-registered ship was traveling from St. Petersburg, Russia, to Port Said, Egypt.
The Estlink 2 submarine cable, which transports energy between Finland and Estonia, was cut off on Wednesday. The police said they were looking into whether the ship was involved in this latest alleged act of sabotage against underwater infrastructure. Authorities in Finland said on Thursday that four other data-carrying cables had also sustained damage. The most recent cable cutting were described by the authorities as “aggravated vandalism,” according to The New York Times.
“The Estlink 2 electricity transmission connection between Finland and Estonia has been disconnected this afternoon,” the prime minister of Finland said earlier on Wednesday in a post on X. Authorities are currently looking into the situation and will be on alert over Christmas. Finns’ access to power won’t be impacted by the transmission link outage.”
On Wednesday, December 25, Finland and Estonia severed their link for the transfer of power. Authorities and Elering, the operator of the Estonian transmission system, collaborated to investigate the incident. According to a statement released by the Finnish transmission grid provider Fingrid on Thursday, the defect was found in the underwater cable.
Finland is connected to Sweden, Norway, and Estonia for the transfer of power. EstLink 2, which has a 650 megawatt transmission capacity, is the link that connects Finland and Estonia. With 145 km of undersea cable, 14 km of overhead line on the Finnish side, and 12 km of subterranean cable in Estonia, the whole electrical transmission link is 170 km long.
