Finnish police will release the cargo ship "Fitburg" on Monday, which has been detained on suspicion of sabotage of an underwater cable in the Gulf of Finland. This was reported by the police according to the news agency Reuters.
The ship has been in the custody of the Finnish authorities since December 31. Here, a data cable that runs between the Finnish capital, Helsinki, and the Estonian capital, Tallinn, was damaged.
- Finnish and Estonian police have completed their work on board the vessel, and the seizure can therefore be lifted, said the head of investigation at Finland's National Investigation Agency Risto Lohi in a statement.
According to Finnish police, drag marks on the seabed gave rise to suspicion that the ship's anchor was dragged after the ship before it hit the place where the cable was damaged.
"Fitburg" is a 132-meter-long cargo ship. Its crew comes from Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. The ship is flying the flag of the Caribbean island nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
It was en route from St. Petersburg, Russia, and was heading for Haifa, Israel, when it was stopped by Finnish authorities. It is unknown whether the ship was loaded and what it was carrying.
One crew member was taken into custody on January 4, while several others were placed under travel bans. It is unclear whether the imprisoned crew member will remain in prison. But several crew members are still banned from leaving Finland, police said on Monday.
Several cable breaks in recent years
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, there have been several incidents in the Baltic Sea region, where energy and data infrastructure has been destroyed.
Following the many incidents of cable breaks on the seabed, the NATO operation "Baltic Sentry" was launched in January last year.
As part of "Baltic Sentry", ships, aircraft and drones monitor the Baltic Sea to counter cable breaks, which have been linked to Russia's shadow fleet.
The Russian shadow fleet has been linked to cable breaks several times.
The shadow fleet consists of older tankers and cargo ships, which the UN Maritime Organization describes as ships with inadequate insurance agreements that circumvent sanctions and avoid check.
/ritzau/
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