- - Russian crew detained after undersea cable cut in ‘sabotage’

James RothwellJanuary 1, 2026 at 3:19 AM

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A Finnish Border Guard ship and the Fitburg tanker, which was seized while anchored in the Baltic Sea - Anadolu

Police from Finland have detained the Russian crew of a tanker suspected of cutting a telecommunication cable in the Baltic Sea.

Finnish authorities seized the Fitburg, a St Vincent and Grenadines-flagged cargo ship, on Wednesday. It had been travelling from St Petersburg to Haifa, Israel.

The ship’s crew consists of Russian, Georgian, Kazakh and Azerbaijani sailors, according to police, who are investigating the case as aggravated criminal damage and suspected sabotage.

The Fitburg, which was detained in Finnish waters while its anchor was down, is suspected of being “responsible for damage to [a] cable” running between Helsinki and Tallinn in the Gulf of Finland.

The incident occurred in the Baltic Sea, which has seen a huge increase in suspected sabotage attacks on undersea cables since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Western officials suspect the attacks are being carried out as part of Vladimir Putin’s hybrid war campaign, which is designed to punish the West for its military support of Kyiv.

Elisa, the Finnish telecoms operator and owner of the cable, said the damage had “not affected the functionality of [its] services in any way”.

The company said it had informed Finnish authorities as soon as it detected a fault in the cable earlier on Wednesday.

A Finnish police spokesman said: “At this stage, the police are investigating the incident ‍as aggravated criminal damage, attempted aggravated criminal damage, and aggravated interference with telecommunications.”

Finnish officials announce the seizure of the tanker at a press conference in Helsinki on Wednesday - Reuters

The Estonian justice ministry said a second telecoms cable connecting the country to Finland failed temporarily on Wednesday, although it was not confirmed that it was connected to the Elisa incident.

Alar Karis, the Estonian president, said on social media site X: “I’m concerned about the reported damage ... hopefully it was not a deliberate act, but the investigation will be clarified.”

Alexander Stubb, the Finnish president, said: “Finland is prepared ⁠for security challenges of various kinds, and we respond to them as necessary.”

The case under investigation is reminiscent of an incident in December 2024, when Finnish authorities boarded the Eagle S, an oil tanker linked to Russia. They suspected that its anchor had damaged five cables in the Baltic.

Finland’s attempt to prosecute the Eagle S’s crew collapsed. A court in Finland ruled that prosecutors had not been able to prove that the crew intentionally damaged the cables. The fact that the ship had been stopped in international – rather than Finnish – waters, led to a dispute about jurisdiction.

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Source: “AOL Breaking”