Finland arrests two crew in undersea cable probe amid Russian sabotage fears
Finnish authorities arrested two crew members and placed travel bans on two others aboard the cargo vessel Fitburg, as part of a criminal investigation into damage to a critical undersea telecommunications cable in the Gulf of Finland connecting Finland and Estonia.
The ship, seized late last week while en route from Russia, was found with its anchor dragging on the seabed near the break point, and Finnish police are investigating aggravated criminal damage and interference with telecommunications.
Police have detained a total of 14 crew members with multinational backgrounds including Russian nationals, according to AP news.
Finnish Customs discovered structural steel in the cargo that originated in Russia and falls under sanctions imposed by the European Union, the agency said in a statement.
"Import of such sanctioned goods into the EU is prohibited under EU sanctions regulations," the statement said. “Finnish Customs continues to investigate the sequence of events and the applicability of EU sanctions legislation to this case.”
The incident has heightened regional anxiety about the security of subsea infrastructure.
Earlier this week The Sunday Times reported intelligence suggesting that Russian vessels and submarines have been actively surveying undersea gas and communications links around the UK and Ireland.
Such activity included alleged attempts to recruit Wexford Fishermen to drag metal cutting gear across key cable routes - a claim echoed by the Evening Standard and backed by unnamed defence sources.
This latest cable disruption comes amid a pattern of suspected sabotage in the Baltic region, where undersea telecoms and power cables have been cut or damaged on several occasions in the past two years.
A Russia-linked vessel Eagle S, was involved in another undersea infrastructure breach on Christmas Day 2024, when it cut multiple cables in the Gulf of Finland - an incident widely seen as part of “hybrid warfare” tactics despite legal and jurisdictional challenges.
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