Finland Escalates Probe After Seizing Ship in Suspected Baltic Sea Cable Sabotage

Police have arrested two people, imposed travel bans, and transferred the investigation to Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation.

The seized vessel Fitburg rests in the harbor in Kirkkonummi, Finland, on Dec. 31, 2025. Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva via AP

Finland seized a cargo ship sailing from St. Petersburg, Russia, on Dec. 31 and has since escalated its criminal investigation on suspicion of sabotaging an undersea telecommunications cable running from Helsinki to Estonia across the Gulf of Finland.

The seized vessel, named Fitburg, was en route to Israel from the Russian port at the time and was escorted by Finnish authorities to Kantvik harbour at around 5 p.m. local time on Dec. 31, according to a Jan. 1 statement from Finnish police.

Responsibility for the criminal investigation has now been transferred to Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation, which is probing the case on suspicion of aggravated criminal damage, attempted aggravated criminal damage, and aggravated interference with telecommunications, police said.

The Fitburg was dragging its anchor in the sea and was directed to Finnish territorial waters, the police and Finland’s Border Guard said. The cable belongs to Finnish telecoms group Elisa, which first reported the issue.

“The Border Guard’s patrol vessel Turva and helicopter found the suspected vessel within Finland’s exclusive economic zone. The vessel’s anchor chain was found to be lowered into the sea,” Finnish police said in a Dec. 31 statement.

“The Border Guard instructed the vessel to stop and raise the anchor. The Border Guard also requested that the vessel move to a safe anchorage within Finnish territorial waters.”

Finnish authorities said on Jan. 1 that investigative actions are ongoing aboard the vessel, including the collection and analysis of material evidence.

“The police continue to take necessary investigative measures on board the vessel,” police said in a statement. “The investigative actions on the vessel have proceeded smoothly in close cooperation with the crew on board.”

Crew questioning began on Wednesday evening, with formal interviews set to continue Thursday, said Senior Detective Inspector Risto Lohi, tactical leader of the National Bureau of Investigation.

Police have arrested two individuals and placed two additional people under travel bans, though authorities said it was too early to disclose their nationalities or ranks.

Investigators have also launched a subsea crime-scene investigation in the area surrounding the damaged cable, with support from Finland’s Border Guard and Defence Forces.

Finnish authorities have imposed a temporary no-fly zone over Kantvik harbor and restricted access to the area to secure investigative operations, police said.

The Fitburg’s 14 crew members were from Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan, and were all detained by Finnish police, investigators said. The ship sails under the flag of the Caribbean nation of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

According to data from the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), the vessel is owned by Fitburg Shipping Co. Ltd. and managed by Albros Shipping and Trading Ltd. The Epoch Times contacted Albros but did not receive a response before publication.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb thanked the authorities for their work in a post on X, adding, “Finland is prepared for security challenges of various kinds, and we respond to them as necessary.”

“I’m concerned about the reported damage to the subsea cable between Estonia and Finland,” Estonian President Alar Karis said on X.

“Hopefully it was not a deliberate act, but the investigation will clarify. The Estonian and Finnish authorities are working closely together to gather additional information.”

Estonia’s justice ministry said a second telecoms cable, belonging to Swedish company Arelion, connecting the country to Finland had also suffered an outage on Dec. 31.

EU technology commissioner Henna Virkkunen wrote on X that the European Commission was closely monitoring the situation.

“Together with the Member States and NATO, we are prepared to counter hybrid threats,” she said.

Finland in December 2024 boarded the Russian-linked oil tanker Eagle S, which investigators said had damaged a power cable and several telecoms links in the Baltic Sea by dragging its anchor.

However, a Helsinki court in October 2025 dismissed the criminal case against the Eagle S captain and other crew members, ruling that prosecutors failed to prove intent and that any alleged negligence must be pursued by the ship’s flag state or the crew’s native countries.

This latest incident comes amid growing concern in Europe over so-called “hybrid threats” from Russia. Moscow denies engaging in such activity.

In December, NATO’s top military commander said the alliance must be ready to respond to these types of threats to defend its territory.

“Hybrid threats are a real issue, and I do think that we can anticipate more of that happening,” Alexus Grynkewich, a U.S. Air Force general serving as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, told reporters at the alliance’s military headquarters outside the Belgian city of Mons on Dec. 4.

NATO describes hybrid warfare as a fusion of conventional and unconventional means, including subverting or destabilizing the adversary and conducting attacks in such a way that identifying those responsible is difficult.

Hybrid warfare often occurs in the gray zone, the threshold below conventional war, which can include cyberattacks, attacks on critical infrastructure, and espionage.

Of the nine countries that border the Baltic Sea, eight—Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Germany—are members of NATO. The ninth nation is Russia.

Those NATO states have been on high alert after a string of outages of power cables, telecoms links, and gas pipelines that run along the relatively shallow seabed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

NATO has boosted its presence in the Baltic with frigates, aircraft, and naval drones in recent years, and in January 2025 launched operation Baltic Sentry to protect undersea cables in the region.

“We are in contact with the Finnish authorities, through exchange of information, via the NATO shipping centre located at our Allied Maritime Command in Northwood, UK,” a NATO official told The Epoch Times.

Reuters contributed to this report.