Baltic Sea cables probe uncovers drag track on seafloor

HELSINKI: A probe of the sabotaged Baltic Sea power cable has uncovered a drag trail stretching dozens of kilometres on the seabed, Finnish police said on Sunday.

On Christmas Day, the Estlink 2 submarine cable that carries electricity from Finland to Estonia was disconnected from the grid, just over a month after two telecommunications cables were severed in Swedish territorial waters in the Baltic.

Finnish authorities have been investigating the Eagle S oil tanker that sailed from a Russian port over suspected “sabotage”.

The investigation has revealed a “dragging track” on the seabed, police said on Sunday, adding the trail had been identified “from the beginning to the end”. “The track is dozens of kilometres in length”, Detective Chief Inspector Sami Paila from Finland´s National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said in a press release. “For the time being, the possible location where the anchor came off has not been established”, he added.

The cable´s disconnection was the latest in a spate of incidents Western officials believe are acts of sabotage linked to Russia´s invasion of Ukraine.

The Cook Islands-flagged Eagle S oil tanker is currently in Porvoo, a town some 40 kilometres (25 miles) east of Helsinki, in the south of the Nordic nation.

Investigations on board the Eagle S tanker had resumed on Sunday with the NBI questioning of the crew, while the underwater operations had been paused due to poor weather conditions, police said.

NATO´s secretary general, Mark Rutte, said on Friday the US-led defence alliance would bolster its military presence in the Baltic Sea in response.

Finnish customs suspect the Eagle S to be part of the Russian shadow fleet, referring to ships transporting Russian crude and oil products which are embargoed due to Russia´s invasion of Ukraine.