Helsinki [Finland], December 27 : Finnish authorities detained an oil tanker on Thursday over suspicions of involvement in damaging critical undersea cables, with indications that the vessel may be linked to Russia's "shadow fleet" designed to bypass Western sanctions, according to a report by The New York Times.
In a statement, Finnish police confirmed boarding the Eagle S tanker while it was in Finnish waters. The vessel, registered in the Cook Islands, was en route from St. Petersburg, Russia, to Port Said, Egypt, when it was intercepted.
The police said they were investigating whether the vessel was involved in the latest suspected act of sabotage on undersea infrastructure: the cutting on Wednesday of the Estlink 2 submarine cable, which carries electricity between Finland and Estonia. The Finnish authorities said Thursday that four other cables carrying data also had been damaged. The police called the latest cable cuts "aggravated vandalism," The New York Times reported.
Earlier on Wednesday, Finland Prime Minister in a post on X had said, "The Estlink 2 electricity transmission connection between Finland and Estonia has been disconnected this afternoon. Authorities are still on standby over Christmas and are investigating the matter. The interruption of the transmission connection will not affect the electricity supply of Finns."
The electricity transmission connection between Finland and Estonia was disconnected on Wednesday, 25 December. The fault was investigated in cooperation with the Estonian transmission system operator Elering and authorities. On Thursday, the fault was located in the submarine cable, Fingrid, a Finnish transmission grid company had said in a statement.
Finland has electricity transmission connections to Estonia, Sweden, and Norway. EstLink 2 is the electricity transmission connection between Finland and Estonia, with a transmission capacity of 650 megawatts. The total length of the electricity transmission connection is 170 km, of which 145 km is submarine cable, 14 km is overhead line on the Finnish side, and 12 km is underground cable in Estonia.