Finland has detained a ship and its crew after a critical undersea telecommunication cable connecting the country to Estonia was damaged Wednesday, Finnish authorities said.
Finnish police said in a statement that the vessel suspected of causing the damage was found with its anchor chain lowered into the sea in Finland’s waters, while the damage site itself was in Estonia’s waters. The police later named the vessel as the Fitburg, a Saint Vincent and the Grenadines flagged cargo ship.
The Finnish National Police Commissioner Ilkka Koskimäki said at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon that all 14 members of the ship’s crew have been detained, adding that the crew are citizens of Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
Incidents like this have become more frequent in recent years, raising suspicions they are the result of sabotage and prompting NATO to launch a project earlier this year specifically aimed at strengthening the protection of critical undersea infrastructure.
According to MarineTraffic, which tracks ship movements, the Fitburg departed the Russian port of St. Petersburg on Tuesday and was headed to Haifa in Israel.
Finland's National Police Comissioner Ilkka Koskimäki speaks during a press conference in Helsinki, Finland on Wednesday. Kimmo Penttinen/Lehtikuva/AFP/Getty Images
After the damage was reported, Finnish authorities instructed the ship to stop and raise its anchor, and then took control of it, the police said.
Finnish media reported that the ship was seized by special forces police and the coast guard from helicopters.
Finland’s President Alexander Stubb said that the government was monitoring the situation closely and that Finland was “prepared for security challenges of various kinds.”
The police said they were investigating the incident as aggravated criminal damage, attempted aggravated criminal damage, and aggravated interference with telecommunications.
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