Finland seizes vessel after cable damage
A Finnish border guard patrol vessel and helicopter located the suspected ship.
A Finnish border guard patrol vessel and helicopter located the suspected ship.
HELSINKI (AF) — 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.
No details about the identity of the vessel were disclosed.
The 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, police said in a statement.
Part of the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Finland is bordered by Estonia, Finland and Russia.
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.
Finnish police said they were investigating the incident as “aggravated criminal damage, attempted aggravated criminal damage, and aggravated interference with telecommunications.”
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 respond to them as necessary,” Finnish President Alexander Stubb said in a statement posted to X on Wednesday.
