Finland Seizes Russia-Linked Ship Over Suspected Baltic Sea Cable Sabotage

Finnish authorities have seized a cargo vessel sailing from Russia after an undersea telecommunications cable linking Finland and Estonia was damaged in the Baltic Sea. Police said the ship, Fitburg, was intercepted while travelling from St Petersburg to Israel and is suspected of aggravated disruption of telecommunications and aggravated sabotage. The vessel was taken to Finnish territorial waters and is now held at a harbour in Kirkkonummi as investigations continue.

The damaged cable, owned by Finnish telecoms company Elisa, runs between Helsinki and Estonia across the Gulf of Finland. Investigators said the Fitburg had been dragging its anchor, which may have caused the damage. All 14 crew members, who are nationals of Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, have been detained for questioning. The ship is flagged in St Vincent and Grenadines and is owned and managed by companies that could not be immediately reached for comment.

The incident has heightened concerns over infrastructure security in the Baltic Sea, where NATO countries have been on high alert since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Several power, gas and telecom cables have been damaged in recent years, raising fears of hybrid threats involving sabotage and other non-military tactics. NATO said it is in close contact with Finnish authorities, while Estonia confirmed a separate outage on another cable and the European Commission said it was closely monitoring developments.

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