Finland’s police say a Russian-linked ship caught in severed cables may have dragged anchor for 60 miles

Helsinki, Finland – Finnish investigators probing damage to a Baltic Sea power cable and several data cables said they found an anchor drag mark on the seabed, apparently from a Russian-linked vessel that has already been seized for investigation.

The Estlink-2 power cable, which sends energy from Finland to Estonia across the Baltic Sea, went down on December 25 after an apparent rupture. It had little impact on services but followed earlier damage to two data cables and that Nord Stream gas pipelinesboth of which have been termed sabotage.

Finnish police chief Sami Paila said late Sunday that the trail stretched “tens of kilometers… if not almost a hundred kilometers (62 miles).”

“Our current understanding is that the tow mark in question is the anchor of the Eagle S vessel. We have been able to clarify this matter through underwater research,” Paila told Finnish national broadcaster Yle.

“I can say that we have a preliminary understanding of what happened at sea, how the anchor mark was created there,” Paila said, without giving further details. He also emphasized that “the question of intent is a very important question that needs to be clarified in the preliminary investigation, and it will be clarified as the investigation progresses.”

On Saturday, the vessel was escorted to inner anchorage near the port of Porvoo to facilitate the investigation, officials said. It is being investigated under criminal charges of aggravated interference with telecommunications, aggravated vandalism and aggravated criminal trespass.

The ship is under the flag of the Cook Islands, but was described by Finnish customs officials and the EU’s executive commission as part of Russia’s shadow fleet of fuel tankers. They are aging ships with unclear ownership, acquired to evade Western sanctions against Russia amid the war in Ukraine, and operating without Western-regulated insurance.

Russia’s use of the ships has raised environmental concerns about accidents due to their age and uncertain insurance coverage.

In the wake of the cable break, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said last week that the military alliance, which Finland joined last year, will step up patrols in the Baltic Sea region, where tensions have risen since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Finland, which shares an 832-mile border with Russia, abandoned its decades-long policy of neutrality and joined NATO in 2023, amid Russia’s war on Ukraine.

About seven months after the Russian invasion began, a series of underwater explosions blew up the Nord Stream pipelines built to transport Russian gas to Europe. The reason is not yet confirmed, but Germany has applied for three Ukrainian citizens for questioning in connection with the suspected sabotage.

At the end of November 2024, parts of two data cables were cut off in Swedish territorial waters. Ship tracking sites show that the Chinese cargo ship Yi Peng 3 had sailed over the cables around the time they were cut.

Russia responded to early speculation by European officials that the cables might have been damaged as part of Moscow’s hybrid warfare efforts with derision. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at the time that it was “quite absurd to continue to blame Russia for everything for no reason.”