Finland seizes Russian oil tanker suspected of cutting undersea cables, EU targets Moscow's 'shadow fleet'

On Thursday, the Finnish authorities seized an oil tanker that they believe was involved in the damage of the undersea cable between Finland and Estonia. The authorities stated that the seized vessel was part of Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of ships. The announcement came a day after the Estlink 2 submarine cable, which carries electricity between Finland and Estonia, was cut raising concerns about the security of cables in the Baltic Sea.

The Wednesday incident was the latest in a slew of disruptions to undersea infrastructure that are being investigated as acts of sabotage. In a statement, the Finnish authorities said that four other cables carrying data were also damaged in the incident. While speaking more about the seized vessel, the police in Finland described the cable cut as “aggravated vandalism”.

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The police said that they had seized the Eagle S tanker, which is registered in the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. The ship in question was sailing from St Petersburg, Russia to Port Said in Egypt. “We assume at this stage that the vessel in question is a member of the shadow fleet used by Russia," the head of Finland’s customs agency, Sami Rakshit, told a news conference, without providing further details.

Matter under investigation

While Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said that there was no direct evidence that the Eagle S was connected to Russia, the incident underscored Baltic nations’ vulnerability to potential meddling from Moscow. “This underlies the danger of the shadow fleet in the Baltic Sea,” the Finnish premier said in a press conference in Helsinki, The New York Times reported.

“Our main task is to find effective means to stop the shadow fleet. The shadow fleet pumps money into Russia’s war fund so that Russia can continue to wage its war in Ukraine against the people of Ukraine, and it has to be stopped," he added. Orpo maintained that the Finnish authorities had discussed the incidents with the officials from Estonia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Poland, NATO and the European Commission.

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Meanwhile, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen lauded the Nordic nation for its “swift action” over the matter. “Yesterday’s Baltic Sea incident highlights threats to E.U. infrastructure,” she said on social media. “Together we will increase our common protection of European critical infrastructure including undersea cables," she added.

Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal also said that the government had been coordinating with Finland and investigating the matter. “Glad that we managed to act decisively and stop the suspected vessel for further investigation,”  Michal wrote on X. While the power in Finland remained intact, the cut to the Estlink 2 cable caused little disruption in Estonia. However, a spokeswoman for Estonia’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications made it clear that there would be no impact on the public.

Apart from this, communication services between Helsinki and the German city of Rostock were affected, according to Cinia, a digital communications company that owns the cable. The company mentioned that the repairs could take several weeks.

It is pertinent to note that a number of other vital undersea cables have been cut in recent months, raising fear that Russia and China might have launched a shadow complaint against NATO. Last month, two fibre-optic cables were cut in the Baltic Sea in what Germany’s defence minister described as an act of sabotage. While one cable connected Finland and Germany; the other ran between Lithuania and Sweden — all members of the NATO alliance.