Nato is ready to help Finland and Estonia, which are investigating an oil tanker for possible sabotage in connection with the break of submarine cables between the two countries.
This is what NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte writes on X.
– NATO stands in solidarity with the allies and condemns any attack on important infrastructure, writes Rutte on Thursday evening.
– We are following Estonia’s and Finland’s investigations, and we are ready to provide more support.
Finnish police announced earlier Thursday that they have stopped a tanker suspected of being the cause of several broken cable connections in the Baltic Sea between Finland and Estonia.
The tanker sailed from a Russian port and passed through the Baltic Sea.
When the Finnish coastguard approached the ship, it could be seen that it had no anchors up. The ship’s crew was ordered to raise the ship’s anchors.
Here it turned out that the anchors were gone, it says.
According to Finnish police, it is probably an anchor from the tanker that has caused the damage to the power cable Estlink 2, which was interrupted on Wednesday.
Finnish police say they boarded the ship on Thursday night. Police are now investigating “serious sabotage”.
It is not yet known what damage has occurred to the electric cable.
The Finnish energy company Fingrid has stated in a statement on Thursday that the damage to the cable has been located on the part of the cable that lies underwater in the Gulf of Finland. It is the easternmost bay in the Baltic Sea.
The tanker is also suspected of having caused interruptions in three communication cables between Finland and Estonia. Estonia has said the outages were discovered on Wednesday night.
The oil tanker that the Finnish authorities have boarded is called “Eagle S”. This is according to the Finnish Coast Guard. The ship is registered in the Cook Islands, which is a self-governing New Zealand territory in the Pacific Ocean.
Finnish customs believe the “Eagle S” is operating as part of Russia’s so-called shadow fleet.
It consists of tankers that sail under the flags of countries other than Russia. In this way, Russia maintains its oil exports despite sanctions.
/ritzau/
Source: www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk
