Estonia begins naval patrols to protect cables with Finland

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Estonia has begun naval patrols to protect a cable supplying electricity from Finland after suspected sabotage of another on Christmas Day, Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said on Friday.

“We have decided to send our fleet close to Estlink 1 to defend and secure our energy connection with Finland,” he wrote on X.

The Estlink 2 submarine cable was disconnected from the network on Wednesday, just over a month after two telecommunication cables were cut in Swedish territorial waters in the Baltic Sea.

Finnish authorities said on Thursday they were investigating an oil tanker sailing from a Russian port over the suspected “sabotage”.

The Eagle S vessel, which sails under the flag of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, was on its way to Port Said in Egypt.

“The assumption at the moment is that it is a shadow navy vessel and the cargo was unleaded petrol loaded in a Russian port,” said Sami Rakshit, director general of the Finnish customs service.

The Shadow Fleet refers to ships carrying Russian crude oil and oil products, which are under embargo due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The police suspect that the oil tanker’s anchor may have damaged the power cable.

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said on Thursday: “The damage to critical underwater infrastructure has become so frequent that it is hard to believe that these are accidents or just poor maritime manoeuvres.”

Dragging an anchor on the seabed can hardly be considered an accident, Tsahkna added.

sw/ach/js