Finland Seizes Oil Tanker Suspected of Cutting Subsea Cables

Finnish authorities seized control of an oil tanker, the Eagle S, suspected of causing an outage of an undersea power cable and internet lines connecting Finland and Estonia. The vessel, registered in the Cook Islands, was boarded by the Finnish coast guard in the Baltic Sea. The Director of the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, Robin Lardot, stated that they are investigating the incident as grave sabotage, attributing the damage to an anchor of the vessel.

The Finnish customs service seized the vessel’s cargo, linking the Eagle S to Russia’s shadow fleet of aging tankers that evade sanctions on Russian oil sales. Both the Finnish and Estonian governments will hold meetings to assess the situation. The outage of the Estlink 2 interconnector, caused by the tanker crossing the cable, will take months to repair and poses a risk of power shortages during winter.

The incident is part of a series of outages affecting Baltic Sea nations since 2022, raising concerns of potential sabotage. Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna described the damage to submarine infrastructure as systematic attacks against vital structures. The outage of the Estlink 2 cable and the vessel’s suspected involvement highlight the need for enhanced protection of undersea infrastructure in the region.

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