Finnish authorities have seized a vessel suspected of intentionally severing undersea telecommunications cables amid fears of Russian sabotage in the Gulf of Finland.
The seized cargo vessel Fitburg was en route from the Russian port of St Petersburg to Israel at the time of the incident on Wednesday, Finnish Border Guard officials said at a news conference in Helsinki.
The Fitburg was dragging its anchor in the sea and was directed to Finnish territorial waters, the police and Border Guard said.
Helsinki police opened an investigation into potential aggravated criminal damage and aggravated interference with telecommunications.
The Fitburg’s 14 crew members were from Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan and were all detained by Finnish police, investigators said. The ship sailed under the flag of St Vincent and the Grenadines.
“Finland is prepared for security challenges of various kinds, and we respond to them as necessary,” Finnish President Alexander Stubb said in a statement.
Part of the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Finland is bordered by Estonia, Finland and Russia. The area has been hit by a string of similar incidents in recent years.
The undersea cable belongs to telecommunications service provider Elisa and is considered to be critical underwater infrastructure for Finland.
The company said in a statement the cable damage has “not affected the functionality of Elisa’s services in any way”, noting services have been rerouted. Earlier, Elisa said it had detected a fault in its cable and reported it to Finnish authorities.
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