Police in Finland arrest 2 members of cargo ship's crew in connection with damage to undersea cable

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HELSINKI (AP) — Finnish authorities have arrested two members of a cargo ship's crew in connection with damage to an undersea telecommunications cable in the Gulf of Finland that occurred earlier this week between the capitals of Finland and Estonia, police said Thursday.

The damage was discovered early Wednesday in Estonia’s exclusive economic zone. The cable belongs to Finnish telecommunications service provider Elisa and is considered to be critical underwater infrastructure.

Helsinki police have opened an investigation into aggravated criminal damage, attempted aggravated criminal damage and aggravated interference with telecommunications.

Officials placed two other crew members under travel bans as a result of the ongoing investigation, Helsinki police said in a statement Thursday.

Police would not release the ranks of the crew members aboard the ship, their nationalities or other details.

The ship, named the Fitburg, was flagged in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It had been traveling from Russia to Israel. The 14 crew members hail from Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan and were detained by Finnish authorities.

Finnish National Police Commissioner Ilkka Koskimäki said earlier this week that the ship was dragging its anchor for hours when it was discovered in Finland’s exclusive economic zone. He noted investigators are not speculating on whether a state-level actor was behind the damage.

Finnish Customs discovered structural steel in the cargo that originated in Russia and falls under sanctions imposed by the European Union, the agency said in a statement.

"Import of such sanctioned goods into the EU is prohibited under EU sanctions regulations," the statement said. “Finnish Customs continues to investigate the sequence of events and the applicability of EU sanctions legislation to this case.”

The undersea cables and pipelines crisscross one of the busiest shipping lanes in Europe, linking Nordic, Baltic and central European countries. They promote trade and energy security and, in some cases, reduce dependence on Russian energy resources.

Finnish authorities last year charged the captain and two senior officers of a Russia-linked vessel, the Eagle S, that damaged undersea cables between Finland and Estonia on Christmas Day in 2024.

The Finnish deputy prosecutor general said in an August statement that charges of aggravated criminal mischief and aggravated interference with communications were filed against the captain and first and second officers of the oil tanker. The officers, whose names were not made public, denied the allegations, the statement said.

However, a Finnish court in October dismissed the charges because the damaged cables were outside Finland's territorial waters.

The Kremlin previously denied involvement in damaging the infrastructure, which provides power and communication for thousands of Europeans.

The Eagle S was flagged in the Cook Islands but had been described by Finnish customs officials and the European Union’s executive commission as part of Russia’s shadow fleet of fuel tankers. Those are aging vessels with obscure ownership, acquired to evade Western sanctions during the war in Ukraine and operating without Western-regulated insurance.

For the West, such incidents are believed to be part of widespread sabotage attacks in Europe allegedly linked to Moscow following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.