Finland detains Russia-linked ship suspected of sabotage
Finnish authorities on Dec. 31 detained a ship sailing out of Russia on suspicion of deliberately sabotaging an undersea telecommunications cable, local authorities reported.
Early in the morning on Dec. 31, the Finnish telecommunications service provider Elisa reported that an undersea cable linking Finland and Estonia had been damaged, triggering an investigation by the Finnish Border Guard.
The Border Guard identified a vessel, the cargo ship Fitburg, which it believed was responsible to the damage to the cable. The Fitburg had departed from St. Petersburg and was sailing through Finland's exclusive economic zone, where the cable damage site was also located.
According to the Border Guard, the vessel's anchor chain had been lowered into the sea.
In a joint operation between the Border Guard and Helsinki Police, the Fitburg was detained and moved to an undisclosed "safe place" pending further investigation, authorities said. Police are investigating the incident as aggravated criminal damage, attempted aggravated criminal damage, and aggravated interference with telecommunications.
Investigators are cooperating with Estonian and other international authorities.
"I'm concerned about the reported damage ... Hopefully it was not a deliberate act, but the investigation will clarify," Estonian President Alar Karis wrote on X.
At the time of the incident, the Fitburg was sailing under the flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Its 14 crew members are nationals of Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan, authorities reported.
Vessels linked to Russia — particularly Moscow's "shadow fleet"of aging oil tankers — have been tied to a number of sabotage operations, leading to heightened tensions between Russia and countries bordering the Baltic Sea.
The latest incident comes almost exactly a year after Finland detained the Eagle S, a Russian tanker suspected of damaging the Estlink 2 power cable in the Gulf of Finland on Christmas Day, 2024. Finnish investigators believed the Eagle S deliberately dragged its anchor for dozens of kilometers across the Baltic seabed, damaging critical infrastructure.
The case was dropped in October 2025 when the Helsinki District Court ruled that Finland did not have jurisdiction to prosecute the vessel's crew.
That same month, the Danish government announced it would tighten controls on oil tankers passing through its waters in response to the threat posed by Russia's shadow fleet. Sweden also recently detained a sanctioned Russian vessel, the Adler, after boarding and inspecting the ship overnight on Dec. 21.
