EU warns of sabotage risk as Finland seizes ship suspected in Baltic cable damage
Europe “remains vigilant” as its critical infrastructure faces a high risk of sabotage, EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said, after Finnish authorities seized a cargo vessel suspected of damaging a subsea telecommunications cable between Helsinki and Tallinn.
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Finnish police detained the Fitburg, a 132-meter cargo ship, and its 14 crew members as part of an investigation into damage to a telecoms cable in the Gulf of Finland. Authorities suspect the ship’s anchor may have struck the cable, which lies in Estonia’s exclusive economic zone.
Finnish Customs said the vessel was transporting Russian structural steel that falls under the European Union’s sectoral sanctions. “Import of such sanctioned goods into the EU is prohibited under EU sanctions regulations,” the agency said after inspecting the ship’s cargo. The steel remains impounded while officials assess the applicability of EU sanctions to the case, and Customs has opened a preliminary inquiry with a view to launching a pre-trial investigation into a potential sanctions violation.
Police said they are investigating the cable incident as aggravated criminal damage, attempted aggravated criminal damage, and aggravated interference with telecommunications.
The Fitburg is flagged to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and was sailing from St. Petersburg, Russia, to Haifa, Israel, authorities said. The 14 crew members — nationals of Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan — were detained for questioning by Finnish police.
Kallas, in a post on X, said Europe would continue to harden its defenses. “The EU will continue to fortify its critical infrastructure, including by investing in new cables, strengthening surveillance, ensuring more repair capacity, and moving against Moscow’s shadow fleet, which also acts as a launchpad for hybrid attacks,” she said.
The damaged cable is owned by Finnish telecoms group Elisa. The company said traffic was rerouted and customers did not experience service interruptions.
The seizure of the Fitburg and the sanctions probe underscore how the war in Ukraine has reshaped risk calculations around Europe’s energy and communications lifelines. Subsea cables and pipelines in the Baltic Sea have been damaged in recent years, incidents that many experts and political leaders view as part of a broader “hybrid war” targeting Western infrastructure since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Finnish authorities did not say whether any charges would be filed and emphasized that multiple lines of inquiry remain open. Customs officials said their sanctions assessment is ongoing, while police continue to examine how the cable was damaged and whether any criminal liability can be established.
The investigation adds urgency to EU efforts to bolster infrastructure security across the Baltic and beyond, from enhancing maritime domain awareness to expanding maintenance and repair capacity for critical networks that support finance, energy and digital communications. Kallas said Europe would “remain vigilant” as those measures advance.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
