Baltic Sea cables probe uncovers drag track on seafloor
This undated handout photo obtained from the Finnish police (Poliisi) on December 29, 2024 shows a robotic ROV (Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle) used for underwater investigation off Porvoo (Borga), Gulf of Finland, as Finnish authorities have been investigating the Eagle S oil tanker that sailed from a Russian port over suspected "sabotage". (Photo by Handout / various sources / AFP)
HELSINKI, Finland (AFP) — A probe of the sabotaged Baltic Sea power cable has uncovered a drag trail stretching dozens of kilometers on the seabed, Finnish police said on Sunday.
On Christmas Day, the Estlink 2 submarine cable that carries electricity from Finland to Estonia was disconnected from the grid, just over a month after two telecommunications cables were severed in Swedish territorial waters in the Baltic.
Finnish authorities have been investigating the Eagle S oil tanker that sailed from a Russian port over suspected “sabotage.”
The investigation has revealed a “dragging track” on the seabed, police said on Sunday, adding the trail had been identified “from the beginning to the end.”
“The track is dozens of kilometers in length,” Detective Chief Inspector Sami Paila from Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said in a press release.
“For the time being, the possible location where the anchor came off has not been established,” he added.
The cable’s disconnection was the latest in a spate of incidents Western officials believe are acts of sabotage linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Cook Islands-flagged Eagle S oil tanker is currently in Porvoo, a town some 40 kilometers east of Helsinki, in the south of the Nordic nation.
Investigations on board the Eagle S tanker had resumed on Sunday with the NBI questioning of the crew, while the underwater operations had been paused due to poor weather conditions, police said.