At the center of the suspected sabotage is a Chinese merchant ship, which has been surrounded by European warships in international waters for a week. The case tests the limits of the law of the sea and increases tensions between Beijing and European countries.
Investigators suspect that the crew of the bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 – which is 225 meters long, 32 meters wide and loaded with Russian fertilizer – deliberately cut two critical data cables last week as it dragged its anchor more than 100 miles in the At the bottom of the Baltic Sea. They are now investigating whether the captain of the Chinese-owned ship, which departed from Russia’s Ust-Luga Baltic port on November 15, was recruited by Russian intelligence to carry out the sabotage. It would be the latest in a series of attacks on critical infrastructure in Europe that law enforcement and intelligence officials say were orchestrated by Russia.
“It is extremely unlikely that the captain would not have noticed that his ship’s anchor had been dropped while it was losing speed for hours and cutting the cables on the way,” said one of the leading European investigators involved in the case. The ship’s Chinese owner, Ningbo Yipeng Shipping is cooperating with the investigation and has authorized the vessel to be stopped in international waters, according to people familiar with the investigation.
The undersea cable damage occurred in Swedish waters on November 17-18, prompting the country’s authorities to launch an investigation. Russia denies any wrongdoing. Investigators determined that the ship dropped anchor on November 17 at around 9pm local time, but remained in Swedish waters. The towed anchor soon cut the first cable between Sweden and Lithuania. During this time, the ship’s transponder, which shows the ship’s movements in the so-called Automatic Identification System, stopped working. This is known as a “dark incident” in maritime traffic jargon. The ship then continued on its way, despite satellite and other data reviewed by investigators showing that the towed anchor significantly reduced its speed.
According to investigators, the Yi Peng 3 cut the second cable between Germany and Finland at around 3:00 a.m. the next day after traveling about 111 miles. Shortly after that, the ship began to zigzag and move on. Danish Navy ships then set out to chase and capture the Yi Peng 3, eventually forcing it to anchor in the Kattegat Strait, which connects the Baltic and North Seas. An examination of the ship’s anchor and hull revealed damage that suggested the anchor had been pulled and the cables had broken. “Given the mild weather conditions and the manageable wave height, the probability of an accidental pulling of the anchor seems to be minimal,” said the analysis of the company Kpler, which provides real-time data on international shipping.
While such incidents have been kept confidential in the past, the damage to internet cables last week quickly forced top European leaders to intervene publicly. The crew of the Yi Peng 3 – captained by a Chinese national and including a Russian sailor – have not been questioned so far, according to people familiar with the investigation, but a member of a Danish escort vessel briefly boarded the ship before it anchored in the Kattegat Straits. . Several Western law enforcement and intelligence officials said they did not believe the Chinese government was involved in the incident, but suspected Russian intelligence agencies were behind the sabotage.
“These are absurd, unfounded accusations,” the Kremlin press office said. The same Western officials who point the finger at Russia were silent when Ukraine blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines, the press office said, referring to the 2022 sabotage of the Russian gas pipeline to Europe. “I would like to reiterate that China consistently supports working with all countries to maintain the security of international submarine cables and other infrastructures in accordance with international law,” Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told reporters in connection with the incident.
The Chinese bulk carrier is currently being guarded by a small flotilla of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) vessels consisting of Danish, German and Swedish vessels. Formerly neutral Sweden is the latest NATO member to join the military alliance following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Under international maritime law, NATO ships cannot force the Yi Peng 3 to enter one of their ports. Swedish and German authorities are negotiating with the ship’s owner to gain access to the ship and question the crew. The German police also dispatched the Bamberg patrol boat to investigate one of the incidents with underwater drones. Swedish and Danish ships also examined the sites on the seabed.
European authorities should proceed with caution as they are committed to freedom of navigation and upholding international law underpinning global trade, several European politicians and security and law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation said. Since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Western officials have accused the Kremlin of waging a shadow war in NATO’s European territory to destabilize the West, including attacks on undersea pipelines and data cables in the Baltic Sea and the Arctic.
In October last year, the Chinese-registered ship Newnew Polar Bear cut the Balticconnector gas pipeline and the telecommunications cable connecting Finland with Estonia with its anchor, according to people familiar with the investigation of the case. Russian sailors were on board the Chinese ship at the time of the incident. The Newnew Polar Bear was able to continue on to Russia in the Arctic because Swedish, Danish and Norwegian authorities did not want to stop the ship without a solid legal basis, according to officials. However, in the case of Yi Peng 3, the Danish Navy decided to intervene quickly to stop the ship after two cables were damaged.
The Yi Peng 3 operated exclusively in Chinese waters from December 2019 to early March 2024, when it suddenly changed its operating schedule, said Benjamin L. Schmitt, a senior fellow at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. The Chinese ship then began carrying Russian coal and other cargo, visiting Russian ports such as Nakhodka on the Sea of Japan, several calls at the port of Murmansk on the Barents Sea, and one visit to the Baltic Sea. Currently, according to Kpler’s data, the ship is loaded with Russian fertilizer. “While this alone is not enough evidence of Russian involvement, the fundamental shift in the ship’s operating region to Russian ports after years of operating exclusively in Chinese waters should be a key area of investigation for European authorities,” Schmitt said.
Source: sg.hu
