Europe suspects: this is how Russia destroys critical infrastructures on the continent

Russia apparently caused another serious damage to critical infrastructure in northern Europe, according to a new investigation opened in Finland and Estonia. Law enforcement authorities in Finland announced yesterday (Thursday) that they had seized an oil tanker linked to Russia and suspected of rupturing several critical submarine cables linking Finland and Estonia. It is estimated that it will take several months to repair the damage.The Finnish Coast Guard announced that it seized the tanker in the Baltic Sea. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Finland’s armed special forces raided the ship at night after being dropped there by helicopters from the air.

The ship carries the flag of the Cook Islands, and despite this, the suspicion is that it is part of Russia’s secret “ghost fleet” designed to smuggle Russian oil to various countries in the world in flagrant violation of the heavy sanctions imposed on Moscow. For the most part, that secret ghost fleet consists of old and poorly maintained ships, which can suffer from serious technical malfunctions.

On Wednesday evening, severe disruptions in the internet and electricity supply began to be registered in areas in Finland and Estonia, and soon the heavy damage to the cables became clear. The police forces in Finland clarified that the main suspicion is that the ship Eagle S, which according to marine traffic monitoring was at the time when the disruptions began in the cable area in the Baltic Sea, deliberately hit it by dragging its anchor on the seabed. Now with the seizure of the ship and its possession in Finland it will be possible to confirm the suspicions.

“From our point of view, this is serious sabotage,” said the commander of Finland’s investigative unit. “To the best of our understanding, the ship’s anchor caused the severe damage.” In addition to the severe damage to three submarine cables between Finland and Estonia, apparently an underwater internet cable connecting Finland and Germany was also severely damaged. The US made it clear that they are closely following the investigation and are ready to provide the allies with any assistance that may be required. This morning, the Estonian Armed Forces announced the start of a new naval operation to increase security on strategic assets in the Baltic Sea, and protect submarine cables in the area.

This is not the first time that a ship linked to Russia is suspected of causing serious damage to cables in the Baltic Sea. At the end of November, Europe suspected that the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3 tore critical submarine cables between Lithuania and Sweden and between Finland and Germany in the heart of the Baltic Sea. According to the suspicions, the Chinese ship that left Russia intentionally sabotaged the order of the Russian authorities.

The Chinese ship was arrested by the authorities in Denmark and was guarded by NATO military vessels for a month, but Europe was unable to reach agreements with China on a full investigation and inspection of all parts of the ship. Therefore, last week, following Chinese pressure, the ship left the Denmark and returned to China, without its anchor being inspected and its responsibility for the serious damage not being proven. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, it is unlikely that the captain and crew China’s ship were not aware of the damage they caused.

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine almost three years ago, Russia has begun a secret and covert campaign to damage critical and strategic infrastructures across the European continent. In a long series of serious acts of sabotage over the past few years, energy facilities, weapons factories, critical means of transportation such as train electric cables, and also submarine cables in a number of European countries have been damaged. In addition, it was recently revealed that Russia is trying to plant explosive devices in the planes of the shipping company DHL on flights in some countries in Europe. In all these cases, Russia carries out the acts of sabotage through a third party – which allows it room to deny and disavow the actions that may be attributed to it.