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China-flagged vessel with Russian captain suspected of sabotaging fibre-optic cables in Baltic Sea
Germany's defence minister has said he believed that the damage was intentional, but could not say who was responsible.
November 21, 2024, 01:26 PM
A China-flagged ship may have been detained by a Danish naval vessel on Nov. 20 after it was suspected of cutting two fibre-optic data cables in the Baltic Sea.
A cut in "the lake"
On Nov. 17 a fibre-optic data cable that connected Denmark and Lithuania was cut, with a second line connecting Finland and Germany being cut on Nov. 18.
The Finnish-German line was the only cable connecting Finland and central Europe, according to Foreign Policy, and severely affected internet communications.
The two lines intersect in the Baltic Sea, a channel of water that has the Atlantic Ocean on one end, and the Russian port of St. Petersburg on the other, with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries enclosing the space in between.
Because of this, the sea has been nicknamed a “NATO lake”, especially since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine convinced the traditionally neutral countries of Finland and Sweden to join the alliance.
The sea is a hive of commercial shipping activity on the surface, with a dense network of undersea cables and pipelines on the sea floor.
It is over this dense network that the China-registered Yi Peng 3 is accused of having damaged, possibly by dragging its anchor across the sea bed over the cables.
Ship was located over the cables at the time
German, Danish, and Finnish officials have reacted with suspicion to the cutting of the cables, with German defence minister Boris Pistorius saying on Nov. 19 that “nobody believes that the cables were cut by mistake.”
He added, “We have to assume, without knowing precisely from whom it stems, that this is an act of hybrid aggression, and we have to assume that it’s a case of sabotage.”
The reason for the suspicion appears to be tracking data that puts the Yi Peng 3 over the locations of the cuts at the time that they were cut.
The Yi Peng 3 then continued to head for the Atlantic Ocean but appeared to have been detained by the Danish Navy before it could do so.
Detained at sea?
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Danish Navy has confirmed that its vessels, including the patrol vessel HDMS Hvidbjørnen, were in the same area as the Yi Peng 3 but have not commented further.
Yes, definitely looks like Hvidbjørnen is joining the party.
— Bengt Sirbelius (@bengts.bsky.social) 20 November 2024 at 09:08
The WSJ also reports that the detention of a foreign vessel without a warrant is unusual, but Denmark might be using a centuries-old convention to give it the legal authority it needs to detain the ship.
Russian captain
But the story is even more murky than it seems because while the Yi Peng 3 is flagged in China, it left Russian ports with a Russian captain.
As Foreign Policy reported, this is not unusual as Russian seafarers are very common on international merchant vessels, but it also does not help ease suspicion.
The WSJ quotes Russia’s spokesperson Dimitry Peskov calling the notion of Russian involvement in the incident “quite absurd".
It also quotes officials as saying that it was unlikely that China’s government was aware of a plot to cut the data cables.
The Guardian quotes a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry as saying “China has consistently and fully fulfilled its obligations as a flag state and requires Chinese vessels to strictly abide by the relevant laws and regulations.”
200 breakages a year
Disruption to the cables in the Baltic is not unusual, the Guardian quotes Finland's intelligence service as saying about 200 cable breakages happen every year, usually due to human activities.
This is also not the first time that undersea lines have been cut under suspicious circumstances.
Foreign Policy recounts the incident of the Newnew Polar Bear, which is thought to be responsible for dragging its anchor across two undersea cables and a pipeline in a single night.
The ship was owned in China and flagged in Hong Kong but had managed to make its way out of the Baltic Sea by the time local authorities had decided to take action, and China has failed to “respond to requests for cooperation”.
This is cited as motivation for quicker action on the part of local authorities in the November 2024 incident.
Related story
Image via www.vesselfinder.com & Wikipedia
