Authorities in Finland and Estonia are investigating damage to an undersea telecommunications cable in the Gulf of Finland early Wednesday, between Helsinki and Tallinn, according to the Associated Press.
Finnish authorities seized and inspected the vessel suspected to have caused the damage, the country’s border guard said. Investigators lowered the ship’s anchor after it was discovered in Finland’s exclusive economic zone.
Helsinki police opened an investigation into aggravated criminal damage, attempted aggravated criminal damage and aggravated interference with telecommunications, the report said. Police said the cable damage happened in Estonia’s exclusive economic zone.
The cable belongs to Elisa, a Finnish telecommunications service provider, and is described as critical underwater infrastructure. Elisa said its service was not affected by the damage.
The ship’s crew of 14 was detained by Finnish authorities, local media reported, with crew members hailing from Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. The vessel, named the Fitburg, was flagged in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and had been traveling from Russia to Israel.
Finnish National Police Commissioner Ilkka Koskimäki told local media that investigators were not speculating on whether a state-level actor was behind the damage. Koskimäki also said the ship had been dragging its anchor for hours.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb wrote on X that “Finland is prepared for security challenges of various kinds, and we respond to them as necessary,” the AP report said.
Estonian authorities are cooperating with Finnish investigators on whether to start a separate criminal case or proceed through a joint prosecution in what the report called the Elisa case.
The AP report also said another undersea cable owned by Swedish telecommunications provider Arelion was damaged early Wednesday. Estonian officials said it was not immediately clear whether the Arelion damage was linked to the Elisa cable cut.
Arelion spokesperson Martin Sjögren confirmed the Gulf of Finland cable damage. In an email, Sjögren said the company is working with authorities in Sweden and other countries to investigate the cause of the cuts and that it cannot disclose details about exact times or locations during the ongoing investigation. He added that another cable between Sweden and Estonia in the Baltic Sea was damaged on Tuesday, and that repair work is expected to begin once poor weather conditions clear. Sjögren said the vast majority of the company’s customers were unaffected by the damage.
Earlier, Finnish authorities charged the captain and two senior officers of a Russia-linked vessel that damaged undersea cables between Finland and Estonia on Christmas Day in 2024, the AP report said. The deputy prosecutor general said in August that charges of aggravated criminal mischief and aggravated interference with communications were filed against the captain and first and second officers of the Eagle S oil tanker; the statement said the names were not made public and that the officers denied the allegations. The Kremlin previously denied involvement in damaging infrastructure that provides power and communication for thousands of Europeans, the report added.