Baltic Sea nations are on excessive alert after a string of energy cable, telecom hyperlink and fuel pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The NATO navy alliance has mentioned it’ll increase its presence within the area.
Finnish police seized the Eagle S tanker carrying Russian oil on Dec. 26 and mentioned they suspected that the vessel had broken the Finnish-Estonian Estlink 2 energy line and 4 telecoms cables on Christmas Day by dragging its anchor throughout the seabed.
Finland Finds Anchor Drag Marks Left by Tanker That Broke Cables
Sweden’s navy on Friday despatched a vessel outfitted for underwater work to assist Finland’s seabed investigation.
“The present suspicion is that the exterior power has been attributable to an anchor,” Jaakko Wallenius, Chief Safety Officer at Elisa, which owns two of the 4 fiber optic strains, informed Reuters on Monday.
The cables, working between Finland and Estonia, are steel-reinforced with a diameter of simply over two centimeters, with a number of layers of insulation defending the fibers inside.
The Eagle S vessel, which is registered within the Prepare dinner Islands, was dropped at a bay close to Finland’s port of Porvoo the place police are at the moment gathering proof and questioning the crew, eight of whom had been named as suspects within the investigation.
A Finnish lawyer representing the corporate that owns the Eagle S has mentioned Finland hijacked the vessel at sea and may launch it, a request denied by a court docket on Friday.
Repairing the Estlink 2 energy cable that was damaged together with the telecoms cables is predicted to take some seven months, operators Fingrid of Finland and Elering of Estonia have mentioned.
Moscow has mentioned Finland’s seizure of the ship is just not a matter for Russia.
(Reporting by Isabelle Yr Carlsson, writing by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, modifying by Terje Solsvik, Kirsten Donovan)
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