Finland Arrests Two Cargo Ship Crew Members Over Undersea Cable Damage

Finnish authorities have detained all 14 crew members of a cargo vessel suspected of deliberately damaging an undersea telecommunications cable connecting Helsinki to Estonia.

The ship, named Fitburg, was sailing from St. Petersburg, Russia, to Haifa, Israel, under a St. Vincent and the Grenadines flag when the incident occurred.

The crew, comprising Russian, Georgian, Kazakh, and Azerbaijani nationals, was arrested following an investigation into alleged “aggravated disruption of telecommunications” and “aggravated sabotage and attempted aggravated sabotage.”

According to the BBC, police have launched a criminal probe into the incident as tensions rise over potential hybrid warfare tactics in the Baltic Sea region.

Cable Damage and Security Response

Finnish telecoms operator Elisa discovered the fault in its undersea cable, prompting immediate action from authorities.

A helicopter and patrol ship were dispatched to the area, where they found the vessel dragging its anchor along the seabed. Police took control of the boat as part of a joint security operation.

However, Elisa confirmed that the damage had not disrupted its services, which were successfully rerouted.

President Alexander Stubb emphasized Finland’s preparedness for security challenges, stating that the country responds to threats “as necessary.”

When journalists questioned whether the cable damage was carried out on behalf of another state, Police Chief Ilkka Koskimäki declined to speculate, insisting that the investigation would determine what happened.

This incident is part of a concerning series of undersea cable disruptions in the Baltic Sea, which experts and political leaders increasingly view as elements of a “hybrid war” conducted by Russia against Western nations.

The scrutiny intensified following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. A second cable linking Estonia to Finland also experienced an outage, with Estonian President Alar Karis expressing hope it was not deliberate.

In December 2024, Finnish police investigated a Russian ship’s potential involvement in the sabotage of an electricity cable between Finland and Estonia.

The previous month, cables connecting Finland to Germany and Lithuania to Sweden’s Gotland Island were damaged in what German officials described as apparent sabotage.

NATO has designated deep-sea cables as critical infrastructure, warning that adversaries could exploit them through sabotage or hybrid warfare.

The European Commission is closely monitoring the situation, with EU technology commissioner Henna Virkkunen vowing to counter “hybrid threats.”

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