NATO will deploy around ten ships by the end of the week to guard critical underwater infrastructure in the Baltic Sea following a series of cable damages in the Baltic Sea in recent months, the latest of which was the severing of an electricity cable between Finland and Estonia and four telecommunications cables over Christmas, on Tuesday, the 7th of January, report Politico and Reuters.
NATO ships will remain at sea until April and will be deployed close to the power and data cables to prevent any sabotage attempts.
Finland is currently conducting a criminal investigation into the oil tanker Eagle S, part of Moscow’s “shadow fleet”, which is suspected of damaging the Finnish-Estonian Estlink 2 power line and four telecommunications cables by dragging an anchor along the seabed. The Finnish authorities announced on Tuesday that the anchor had been found on the seabed.
“The location of the anchor found is on the route of the Eagle S … to the west end of the drag trace found on the seabed,” a statement from the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation said.
The anchor was recovered from the seabed with the help of the Finnish border and defence forces and the Swedish navy, police said.
Finnish lawyer Herman Ljungberg, who represents the ship’s owner, Caravella LLC FZ, based in the United Arab Emirates, said that the alleged damage occurred outside Finnish territorial waters and that the country therefore had no jurisdiction to intervene.
Moscow has stated that the seizure of the vessel by Finland is not within Russia’s competence.
Photos taken after the incident of the Eagle S show that the vessel is missing its anchor on the port side.
The incident sparked outrage in Europe and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte promised to “reinforce the military presence in the Baltic Sea”. Estonia launched its own naval operation to protect the Estlink 2 cable.
The UK-led, mainly Baltic and Nordic, defence cooperation group, the Joint Expeditionary Force, announced on Monday that it will step up its monitoring of vessel traffic using artificial intelligence.
Finnish telecoms operator Elisa said on Monday that two of its submarine telecoms cables appeared to have been severed by a strong external force, adding that they have now been repaired.
The repair of the Estlink 2 power cable is expected to take seven months, the Finnish company Fingrid and the Estonian company Elering have said.
NATO to send fleet to guard Baltic Sea cables
