The tanker Eagle S, which Finland detained on suspicion of ties to the Russian shadow fleet and involvement in damaging undersea cables, was equipped with transceivers. They turned the ship into a spy ship for the Russian Federation.
This was reported by Lloydʼs List, citing sources.
The high-tech equipment on board was unusual for a conventional merchant vessel and consumed more power from the shipʼs generator, leading to repeated outages.
Sources say the listening and recording equipment was brought onto the tanker in huge portable suitcases, along with many laptops with keyboards for Turkish and Russian. The equipment was stored on the bridge, the highest point on the ship.
Transmitting and receiving devices were used to record all radio frequencies, which were later analyzed in Russia.
“They were monitoring all NATO naval ships and aircraft,” sources told Lloyd’s List.
The tanker Eagle S also dropped “sensor-type devices” in the English Channel during transit, the publication’s sources say.
According to them, similar stories were also posted on the Swiftsea Rider.
Lloydʼs List says the Eagle S is flagged to the Cook Islands, while the Swiftsea Rider is flagged to Honduras. They are among 26 Russian tankers with opaque ownership structures that are on the UKʼs sanctions list for "supporting Putinʼs war machine." Both tankers arrived in 2022-2023, circumventing international sanctions. They were later transferred to the shipping division of Russian oil trader Litasco, Eiger Shipping.
What preceded
On November 18, 2024, it became known that an underwater telecommunications cable between Finland and Germany had been broken. It runs alongside other important underwater infrastructure, including gas pipelines and power cables.
Lithuania later reported a break in a communications cable between their country and Sweden. Both incidents came just weeks after the US detected increased Russian military activity around major undersea cables. Germany believes the incidents were sabotage and a hybrid attack.
The American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, citing sources, wrote that the crew of the Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 is suspected of severing communication cables in the Baltic Sea. Investigators believe that the crew may have intentionally severed two important data transmission cables while dragging an anchor along the bottom of the Baltic Sea for more than 160 kilometers.
The Yi Peng 3 has a two-man crew: a Chinese captain and a Russian sailor. European investigations are now focused on whether the Chinese captain was recruited by Russian intelligence. Law enforcement officials say it is “extremely unlikely” that the captain did not see the dropped anchor, which slowed the ship for hours and tore cables in its path.
On Christmas Day, the afternoon of December 25, the Estlink 2 submarine power cable between Finland and Estonia broke. Two ships were sailing overhead during the incident.
Finnish law enforcement officers on December 27 stopped the Eagle S vessel, which may be involved in damaging the submarine cable between Finland and Estonia and may belong to Russiaʼs shadow fleet.
Russiaʼs Shadow Fleet
Russia’s shadow fleet helps it circumvent the G7 oil price ceiling and sanctions. The ships of the shadow fleet have no direct connection to Russia, and their ownership is hidden around the world through complex mechanisms.
The UK believes that Russiaʼs shadow fleet consists of almost 600 vessels and represents approximately 10% of the worldʼs "wet cargo"; fleet.
Russiaʼs shadow fleet transports an estimated 1.7 million barrels of oil per day, generating huge profits for the Kremlin. In 2023, Russia earned $188 billion from oil exports.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.