A Russian-linked ship has been seized by Finnish authorities in connection with the severing of a Baltic Sea power cable.
The Estlink-2 power cable was damaged on Christmas Day, cutting the electricity connection between Finland and Estonia.
Finnish police and border guards boarded the Eagle S vessel in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The ship – registered in the Cook Islands – was intercepted in Finland’s exclusive economic zone and taken to Finnish territorial waters, police said.
Customs officials suspect the Eagle S to be part of Russia‘s shadow fleet of fuel tankers that the Kremlin uses to evade Western sanctions.
Initially, suspicion fell on a Hong Kong registered ship called the Xin Xin Tian 2.
Reports claim the vessel had passed over the power cable around the time of the outrage – at 12.26am.
The Xin Xin Tian 2 is owned by the logistics company Hainan Yangpu, part of the Torgmol group, which has close ties to Russia.
However, authorities have since turned their attention towards the Eagle S, which was also in the area at the same time.
The Eagle S is reported to have slowed down to a quarter of its speed a few minutes before it crossed Estlink 2.
Arto Pahkin, a representative for the national grid operator Fingrid, did not rule out the possibility that the damage was caused intentionally.
« This is one of the versions we are considering. Because two vessels are in the area where the cables are located, » he said.
« The possibility of vandalism cannot be ruled out. However, we are currently studying the situation as a whole and will inform you of the cause of the malfunction as soon as we know it.
This is not the first time that underwater power cables have been damaged in Western waters.
Two data cables, one running between Finland and Germany, the other between Lithuania and Sweden, were severed in November.
Germany’s defence minister Boris Pistorius said at the time that officials had to assume « sabotage ».
This comes at a time of high tensions between the West and Russia, which continues its aggression against Ukraine and has ramped up threats against Kyiv’s allies that are supporting the war-torn nation.
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