Finland Says Ship Linked To Cable Damage Not Seaworthy As NATO Boosts Baltic Presence

Finland says a tanker alleged to be part of Russia's “shadow fleet” that was detained over the damaging of Baltic Sea cables has "serious deficiencies," putting it under detention amid reports NATO is due to begin patrolling near key underwater cables.

"The deficiencies detected are of a nature that operating the ship is forbidden until the deficiencies have been rectified," Sanna Sonninen, director-general of the Maritime Sector at the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom), said in a statement on January 8.

"Rectifying the deficiencies will require external assistance for repairs and will take time,” it added.

Finland is currently conducting a criminal investigation into the oil tanker Eagle S. It is suspected of sabotaging the EstLink-2 power cable -- which sends electricity between Finland and Estonia -- on December 25.

Several other incidents have taken place in recent months in the Baltic Sea, including damage to an Internet cable linking Finland and Germany and another linking Finland and Sweden.

In response to the threat of further incidents, Finnish state broadcaster YLE reported that NATO ships will begin patrolling the areas in the Baltic where cables run. The move is intended to act as a deterrent and reduce the risk of further sabotage that is believed to have been carried out by Russia's "shadow fleet."

YLE reported that up to 10 ships will take part in the security patrols and will remain until at least April.

The “shadow fleet” consists of a number of old, uninsured oil vessels used to bypass Western sanctions on Russia and maintain a source of revenue for the Kremlin. The ships carry Russian crude oil and petroleum products that have been barred following Moscow's February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Finnish police said on January 7 that an anchor had been recovered from the bottom of the Baltic Sea as part of investigations into the cable-damaging incidents.

Authorities have said they suspect the damage to the EstLink-2 cable was caused by a ship dragging its anchor and said the Eagle S was missing one of its anchors.

The Swedish Navy said earlier on January 7 that it had recovered the anchor after sending a submarine to assist Finland in the investigation. A spokesman for the navy told the AFP news agency that the anchor had been handed over to Finnish authorities.

Investigators said earlier that they found a track on the seabed dozens of kilometers long indicating that the ship dragged its anchor. However, they had not yet located the missing anchor at that time.

“The location where the anchor was found is along the route of the Eagle S toward the western end of the drag trace found on the seabed," Finland's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said in a statement.

The captain and another crew member of the seized oil tanker are Georgian nationals, Georgia's Maritime Transport Agency told RFE/RL on January 6. The agency said a representative of the Georgian Embassy had been informed of the two crew members' detention.

Moscow has said it has no connection to the Eagle S and that Finland's seizure of the vessel is not a matter that concerns Russia. It has regularly denied that it is involved in any of the other incidents involving infrastructure assets in the Baltic Sea region.

Britain said on January 6 that it was leading a new initiative using artificial intelligence to "track potential threats to undersea infrastructure and monitor the Russian shadow fleet."

"Specific vessels identified as being part of Russia's shadow fleet have been registered into the system so they can be closely monitored when approaching key areas of interest," the Defense Ministry in London said.

It added that if a "potential risk is assessed, the system will monitor the suspicious vessel in real time and immediately send out a warning" shared with nations of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) and NATO.

The 10-nation JEF also includes Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Netherlands, and Sweden.

With reporting by RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service and YLE