Frachchiff set: new suspicion of sabotage in the Baltic Sea

New cable damage and renewed sabotage investigation: Another ship has been suspected in the Baltic Sea of ​​having damaged a submissive communication cable with its anchor. The Swedish authorities confiscated the freighter and took up investigations due to suspected severe sabotage. The coast guard went for studies on board the ship, while the owners in Bulgaria rejected the accusation of conscious sabotage.

In the past few months there have been several damage to power lines and communication cables in the Baltic Sea, including twice on a fiber optic cable between Helsinki and Rostock. The cause behind it has been unclear so far, but official representatives of various Baltic Sea countries have suspected that ships have cut the cables on the bottom of the sea – possibly deliberately – with their anchors.

There is a suspicion that Russia will, at least in the case of cable damage in December, with its so -called shadow fleet. This means tankers and other cargo ships with opaque owner structures that the Kremlin uses to avoid sanctions due to his war of aggression against Ukraine, for example in oil transport. The EU has issued sanctions against dozens of these ships, but its actual scope should be far greater.

Cable damage despite NATO use

In order to better monitor cables and other critical infrastructure in the sea, NATO recently launched the “Baltic Sentry” (German: Baltic Sea guards). Among other things, ships, patrol flights, submarines, satellites and surveillance drones should be used. Germany is also involved.

Now, however, a cable has considerable damage: This time it is one that runs between the Swedish Baltic Sea island of Gotland and the port city of Ventpils in Latvia and is used by the Latvian broadcasting and television center (LVRTC). The damage occurred in the so-called exclusive economic zone of Sweden on Sunday morning, and according to LVRTC, their repair could take days to weeks. This does not have an impact on the end users.

In contrast to cable breaks in November, the investigators are now rigorous against suspicious ships. As in the case of the “Eagle S”, which was set by the Finnish authorities after the incidents in December and, according to the EU assessment, is part of the shadow fleet, the Swedes also confiscated the now suspicious freighter. Coastal forces already went on board the ship, on which surveys from the crew were planned.

So far, there are no indications that the freighter is part of the shadow fleet. According to reports, however, he is said to have set sail in a Russian port. According to the Latvian army chief Kaspar Pudan, more than 70 ships were present in the Latvian army chief of Kaspar Pudan than the damage to the cable was noticed. This had been checked by those who were near the damage point.

Intentional sabotage or bad weather?

So far, the investigators have not named a name of the suspicious ship. In Bulgaria, however, it was confirmed that the “Vezhen” (German inscription: Weschen) is under Maltese flag. The Bulgarian Seeflotte (BMF) as the owner of the freighter excluded “intentional acts”. BMF Executive Director Aleksandar Kaltschew said that at the time of the incident, the weather was “extraordinarily bad” – one of the two anchors had fallen. It is still unclear whether the freighter caused the incident, since there was also a second ship in the area, said Kaltschev.

The “Vezhen” has been in front of anchors south of Karlskrona in south of Karlskrona, while ships and boats from the Swedish coast guard are permanently with him. “This ship looks extremely run -down,” reported a reporter from the broadcaster SVT on site. According to its broadcaster, parts of the ship anchor are said to be broken. The news agency TT also reported that the anchor on the port side has damage. So far, this has not been officially confirmed by the authorities.

According to the former Lieutenant Colonel Joakim Paasikivi, there can be two possible explanations for the renewed cable break, namely natural reasons such as marine currents or the effect of an external actor. In the latter case, Paasikivi sees two possible alternatives: either it is an accident or intentional – that is exactly what the investigation should clarify, he said according to TT.

However, leading politicians in Europe do not believe in chance that cables in the Baltic Sea are repeatedly damaged in a very similar way. Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys called for a review of the applicable provisions for shipping after the incident. “The navigation rules in the Baltic Sea must be checked, especially with regard to the use of anchors,” he wrote on the platform X.

There have been too many accidents in the Baltic Sea in recent times that the accident theory could continue to be represented, wrote Budrys. “The shadow fleet is not just a problem with regard to the circumvention of sanctions. It is a bigger affair that endangers our environment and our critical infrastructure.”