Finnish Crew Arrested Over Suspected Damage to Undersea Cable Linking Helsinki and Tallinn

Finnish authorities arrested two Fitburg crew members over suspected damage to an undersea cable linking Helsinki and Tallinn, with two others under travel bans. The ship carried EU-sanctioned Russian steel from St. Petersburg to Haifa. Police are investigating criminal damage but have not confirmed state involvement, amid broader European infrastructure disruptions linked to Russia.

Finnish authorities have arrested two individuals as part of a continuing investigation into damage to an undersea telecommunications cable in the Gulf of Finland. The two arrested were members of the crew aboard the cargo vessel Fitburg, which is suspected of having caused damage to a cable that connects Helsinki, the capital of Finland, with Tallinn, Estonia. The investigation is ongoing, and authorities have also imposed travel restrictions on two other crew members while beginning to question all the members of the ship’s crew to determine their respective roles in the incident.
Detective Chief Superintendent Risto Lohi of Finland's National Bureau of Investigation said in a statement that the interviews conducted so far have helped clarify the sequence of events as well as the different roles played by each crew member during the incident. The authorities are examining how the damage occurred and whether any negligence or intentional action by the crew led to the disruption of the critical telecommunications link.
At the time of the incident, the Fitburg was en route from St. Petersburg, Russia, to the port of Haifa in Israel. The vessel carries a crew of 14, composed of individuals from Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan, and is registered under the flag of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Finnish National Police Commissioner Ilkka Koskimaki said earlier that the vessel had been dragging its anchor for several hours before the damage was discovered, which may have contributed to the incident.
Finnish Customs reported that the cargo on the ship included structural steel originating from Russia, which is subject to European Union sanctions. According to the statement from Finnish Customs, the import of such sanctioned goods into the EU is prohibited under EU sanctions regulations. The customs authorities said they are continuing to investigate both the sequence of events and whether the import of the steel violated EU sanctions legislation, indicating that the investigation could have broader legal and political implications.
Authorities are pursuing multiple lines of inquiry in relation to the incident. Finnish police have stated that they are investigating charges including aggravated criminal damage, attempted aggravated criminal damage, and aggravated interference with telecommunications. However, the authorities have not commented on whether a state-level actor could have been involved, leaving open the question of whether the incident was accidental or part of a deliberate act of sabotage.
The suspected damage to the cable comes amid a series of disruptions affecting power cables, telecommunications links, and gas pipelines connecting countries across the Nordic and Baltic regions, as well as other parts of Europe, since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Experts and political leaders have increasingly viewed incidents such as this as part of a broader strategy of hybrid warfare, potentially carried out by Russia against Western nations, aimed at undermining critical infrastructure and creating instability.