Annalena Baerbock warns of cable damage: “Urgent wake-up call”

Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warns about the Russian shadow fleet after damage to an underwater power cable off Finland and calls for further EU sanctions. “Ships are currently damaging important submarine cables in the Baltic Sea almost every month. Ship crews lower anchors, drag them for miles across the seabed for no apparent reason and then lose them when they are pulled up,” said the Green politician of the Funke media group. She finds it more than difficult to believe in coincidences.

“This is an urgent wake-up call for all of us. In a digitalized world, submarine cables are the communication veins that hold our world together,” warned the minister. It is important to protect critical infrastructure even more.

The 170-kilometer-long Estlink 2 connection line between Estonia and Finland was interrupted on Wednesday. The Finnish authorities suspect sabotage and detained the Cook Islands-flagged oil tanker “Eagle S”. Its anchor could have caused the damage to the cable.

According to the EU, the ship belongs to the so-called Russian shadow fleet – tankers and other cargo ships that Russia uses to avoid sanctions, for example when transporting oil. Malfunctions in communication cables in the Baltic Sea were also reported over Christmas.

“The current incident shows once again: The often decrepit Russian shadow fleet, to which the ship now detained by Finland belongs, is a great danger to our environment and to our security. Russia is using it to finance its war of aggression in Ukraine, which violates international law,” said Baerbock. More than 50 ships were hit with EU sanctions in mid-December, and more would have to follow.

Baerbock’s party colleague, Konstantin von Notz, called on the federal government to clearly identify Russia’s hybrid attacks. “Every day there are new provocations and the conscious pushing of boundaries. The aggressiveness and viciousness with which actions are taken here have still not sunk into the consciousness of the German public,” said the Green Party’s deputy parliamentary group leader to the Editorial Network Germany (RND).

The chairman of the Parliamentary Control Committee in the Bundestag warned that if there is ignorance, there will be a lack of determination to react politically to these attacks. “I expect the federal government to finally clearly publicly name and classify this aggression by Russia.”