The anchor of a vessel that damaged an undersea cable linking Helsinki and the Estonian capital Tallinn dragged along the seabed "at least several tens of kilometers" before it hit the line, Finnish police said Sunday.
On Dec. 31, 2025, police detained the Fitburg, a 132-meter-long cargo ship en route from St. Petersburg to Haifa, Israel, following suspicion that the ship's anchor had damaged the subsea cable in the Gulf of Finland.
Finnish authorities have launched an investigation into "aggravated criminal damage, attempted aggravated criminal damage and aggravated interference with telecommunications."
Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, many experts and political leaders have viewed the suspected cable sabotage as part of a "hybrid war" carried out by Russia against Western countries.
"There is reason to suspect that the anchor and anchor chain of the Fitburg vessel have dragged along the seabed for at least several tens of kilometers before reaching the point of damage," police said in a statement.
A Helsinki court ordered the detention of one Azerbaijani national for one week, lead investigator Kimmo Huhta-aho told journalists after the hearing. The vessel's 14 crew members came from Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
Three crew members, including one Russian, were also placed under a travel ban.
Finnish telecoms group Elisa owns the cable, which is located in Estonia's exclusive economic zone.
Energy and communications infrastructure, including underwater cables and pipelines, have been damaged in the Baltic Sea in recent years, raising suspicions of Russian involvement.
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