In Finland, charges have been brought against the captain and crew of the vessel Eagle S on suspicion of damaging five telecommunications cables in the Gulf of Finland. Such conclusions were voiced by Finnish law enforcement during the investigation of the incident involving undersea communications lines.
According to the investigation, the captain together with two assistants on the oil tanker may have been involved in actions that affected the operation of telecommunications networks. As part of the case, they were prohibited from leaving Finland until the investigation was completed, to prevent them from fleeing the country and influencing the investigation.
The accused deny the charges and state that the question of jurisdiction should be considered outside Finnish jurisdiction, since the damaged cables lie beyond Finland’s territorial waters.
This is one of the key stages of the investigation after December 2024, when four submarine cables were damaged in the Gulf of Finland and another was disrupted. The Eagle S tanker is regarded as the main suspect in the case.
What is known about the cable damages
On December 25, 2024, Fingrid, Finland’s national electricity transmission operator, reported damage to the Estlink 2 submarine cable, which connects Finland with Estonia.
The investigation was considered as possible vandalism, taking into account aggravating circumstances; the police considered the version of negligence. Most likely, the cable could have been snagged by the Eagle S’s anchor, linked to the so-called shadow fleet associated with Russia.
In early 2025, a court arrested the Eagle S in this case, as there were grounds to believe that the tanker damaged Estlink 2 and four more telecommunications cables between Finland and Estonia.
On February 28, 2025, the arrest of the tanker was lifted. After review, investigators concluded that there were no grounds for further arrest of the vessel, but the investigation continues.
Other cable damages in the Baltic Sea region
In November, Finnish and German Baltic Sea lines recorded damage to an underwater cable running between the two countries. An outage of another cable between Lithuania and Sweden was also recorded. In early December, several new breaks occurred on the lines between Sweden and Finland, including on land in Espoo and Vihti, indicating growing vulnerability of networks in the region.