On 26 December 2024 the Finnish Border Guard boarded the Russian oil tanker Eagle S after it was suspected of breaching an undersea power cable linking Finland to Estonia the previous day.
In an act of what the Finnish government has called “aggravated sabotage”, Eagle S is accused of dragging its anchor to break the Estlink 2 submarine cable, which carries electricity from Finland to Estonia. The Finnish patrol ship Turva intercepted Eagle S, which was flying the flag of the Cook Islands but is part of Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’ of sanction-busting tankers, to interview the crew and gather evidence. Finnish investigators said the ship’s anchors were not on board the vessel.
The incident on 25 December was the latest in a series of attacks on Western undersea infrastructure.
On 17 and 18 November 2024 a Chinese bulk carrier, Yi Peng Three, is suspected of severing two undersea cables – one linking Sweden to Lithuania and the other between Finland and Germany – by deliberately dragging its anchor along the seabed for more than 160 km.
In October 2023 an undersea gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was shut down after it was damaged by the anchor of the Chinese cargo ship Newnew Polar Bear.
On 26 September 2022 a series of underwater explosions and consequent gas leaks occurred affecting the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipelines within the economic zones of Denmark and Sweden. Both pipelines were built to transport natural gas from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea.
In August 2024 it was reported that German authorities had issued a European arrest warrant for a Ukrainian national suspected of having used the sailing yacht Andromeda along with two others to sabotage the Nord Stream pipelines, although some sources have suggested this might have been a Russian ‘false flag’ operation.
To counter these acts, in May 2024 NATO launched a new Maritime Centre for the Security of Critical Undersea Infrastructure within the alliance’s Maritime Command in the United Kingdom, while on 4 December 2024 NATO foreign ministers wrapped up two days of meetings in Brussels by vowing to address the increasing incident of sabotage and other hostile actions being inflicted on NATO countries.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stated at the time that “both Russia and China have tried to destabilise our countries and divide our societies with acts of sabotage, cyber attacks and energy blackmail”.
While Finland acted decisively to board Eagle S, effectively countering such sabotage is complicated by the fact that it is ostensibly being conducted by civilian vessels that are simply using their anchors as a weapon. Moreover, moves by NATO to counter attacks on the allies’ undersea infrastructure – whether by active patrolling, monitoring of suspect shipping or increased physical protection for undersea cables and pipelines – is likely to become an expensive undertaking.
