The shipping company “Caravella”, which owns the vessel “Eagle S”, has appealed to the Helsinki District Court in Finland to lift the arrest of the vessel, which is believed to be involved in damaging an undersea cable between Finland and Estonia and is part of Russiaʼs shadow fleet. The court rejected the request.
This is reported by Yle.
A lawyer representing the shipping company “Caravella”, which owns the vessel, says his job as a lawyer is to get the tanker and crew released.
According to him, one of the crew members left the ship during his arrest because he had to go to a dentistʼs appointment.
The lawyer insists that "this is about seizure" because he has not received a decision to detain and arrest the vessel in Finnish territorial waters.
Although law enforcement officials previously noted that the tanker is evidence in a criminal case.
What happened
On Christmas Day, on the afternoon of December 25, the “Estlink 2” submarine power cable between Finland and Estonia broke.
Two ships were passing overhead at the time of the incident. Finnish police suspect the “Eagle S”, a vessel en route from Russia to Egypt, was involved. It slowed down significantly when the cable broke. It is believed the cable broke due to an anchor the ship was dragging along the seabed.
The tanker “Eagle S” belongs to Russiaʼs shadow fleet. Spy equipment was found on it.
The electricity grid company “Fingrid” also requested the arrest of the “Eagle S”. This is necessary for a claim for damages due to damage to the “Estlink 2” submarine power cable, which is currently out of service. The amount of damage caused was not specified.
What preceded
An undersea telecommunications cable between Finland and Germany, which runs alongside other important undersea infrastructure, including gas pipelines and power cables, was severed on November 18, 2024. A cable between Lithuania and Sweden was also reported to have been severed. Both incidents came just weeks after the United States detected increased Russian military activity around major undersea cables.
Germany immediately declared that these 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 the crew may have intentionally severed two important data cables while dragging the 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 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.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.