Reports from Baltic Sea nations or international maritime organizations

Finland Detains Russian Tanker Eagle S in Undersea Cable Sabotage Investigation

Dec 26, 2024, 03:18 PM

Finland is investigating an undersea power cable outage on the Estlink 2 interconnector connecting Finland and Estonia after a sudden drop in capacity from 1,016 MW to 358 MW occurred at 10:26 AM GMT on December 25, 2024. Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo announced that authorities are looking into the cause of the disruption, with sabotage not being ruled out. Finnish police are investigating whether a foreign ship was involved in damaging the cable. On December 26, Finnish authorities boarded and detained the oil tanker Eagle S, which is linked to Russia's 'shadow fleet', on suspicion of causing the damage. The National Bureau of Investigation has opened a probe for 'aggravated sabotage' into the incident. Four telecommunication cables between Finland and Estonia are also out of service. The incident raises concerns over critical infrastructure security in the Baltic Sea.