HELSINKI: Finnish police said on Friday they were questioning four crew members aboard a ship suspected of damaging a telecommunications cable between Helsinki and the Estonian capital Tallinn.
On Wednesday, police detained the Fitburg, a 132-metre-long cargo ship en route from St Petersburg, Russia, to Haifa, Israel, following suspicion that the ship´s anchor had damaged the subsea cable in the Gulf of Finland.
It marks the latest instance of suspected undersea infrastructure sabotage in the Baltic Sea since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, with many experts and Western leaders viewing the damage as part of a “hybrid war” waged by the Kremlin.
Police also detained the vessel´s 14 crew members, who are from Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
Two crew members were placed under arrest and two others were placed under a travel ban, a police statement published Friday said, without identifying the individuals concerned.
