Finland finds drag marks on Baltic seabed after cable harm

OSLO (Reuters) – Finnish police mentioned on Sunday that they had discovered tracks that drag on for dozens of kilometres alongside the underside of the Baltic Sea the place a tanker carrying Russian oil is suspected of breaking an influence line and 4 telecoms cables with its anchor.

The Cook dinner Islands-registered Eagle S was boarded by Finnish police and coast guard officers on Thursday and sailed into Finnish waters the place the crew of the impounded tanker is being questioned.

Baltic Sea nations have been on excessive alert after a string of outages of energy cables, telecom hyperlinks and gasoline pipelines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. NATO mentioned on Friday it will enhance its presence within the area.

A break within the 658 megawatt (MW) Estlink 2 energy cable between Finland and Estonia occurred at noon on Wednesday, leaving solely the 358 MW Estlink 1 linking the 2 international locations, grid operators mentioned. They mentioned Estlink 2 won’t be again in service earlier than August.

Finnish police suspect the Eagle S triggered the harm by dragging its anchor alongside the seabed.

Investigators have recognized a “dragging monitor” however have but to discover a lacking anchor, Sami Paila, tactical chief and detective chief inspector of Finland’s Nationwide Bureau of Investigation, mentioned in an announcement.

“The monitor is dozens of kilometres in size,” Paila mentioned.

Pictures taken of the Eagle S on Friday confirmed the vessel lacking its port aspect anchor.

Finland’s customs service believes the ship is a part of a “shadow fleet” of ageing tankers getting used to evade sanctions on exports of Russian oil.

The Kremlin mentioned on Friday that Finland’s seizure of the ship was of little concern to it.

Russia has denied involvement in any of the earlier Baltic infrastructure harm incidents.