Shailesh Kumar, National Defence
New Delhi, 28 December 2024
The Cook Islands-registered ship, named by authorities as the Eagle S, was boarded by a Finnish coast guard crew that took command and sailed the vessel to Finnish waters. Mark Rutte also said “NATO stands in solidarity with Allies and condemns any attacks on critical infrastructure. We are following investigations by Estonia & Finland, and we stand ready to provide further support”.
Spoke w/ @alexstubb about the ongoing Finnish-led investigation into possible sabotage of undersea cables. I expressed my full solidarity and support. #NATO will enhance its military presence in the Baltic Sea.
— Mark Rutte (@SecGenNATO) December 27, 2024
Meanwhile, media reports highlighted that many crew members of alleged ship are of Indian origin and some are Georgian citizens while captain is identified as a Russian citizen. The Russian ship Eagle S is managed by a Mumbai based company Peninsular Maritime India Private Limited.
According to Finnish police statement, the police, in cooperation with other authorities, are investigating the cable rupture that occurred in the Gulf of Finland on Christmas Day, December 25, 2024. The police are investigating the damage to the Estlink 2 power cable and other possible damage in the sea area.
Poliisi tutkii yhteistyössä muiden viranomaisten kanssa Suomenlahden tapahtumia.
Polisen utreder händelserna i Finska viken i samarbete med andra myndigheter.
Police investigating incidents in the Gulf of Finland in cooperation with other authorities.https://t.co/PMWfOFwtMJ pic.twitter.com/Qe3O8wm7tw
— Suomen poliisi (@SuomenPoliisi) December 26, 2024
The statement noted that the Eagle S tanker, registered in the Cook Islands, moved into Finnish territorial waters as a result of official action, and its involvement in causing the damage is being investigated.
The Helsinki Police Department and the Border Guard have conducted a field operation on the vessel. The authorities have conducted investigative activities on the vessel, which has been accessed by Border Guard and Defence Forces helicopters.
The criminal code at this stage of the investigation is aggravated vandalism. The Central Criminal Police Office is responsible for the investigation of aggravated vandalism. In addition, Customs is conducting a preliminary investigation into the aggravated regulatory offence and investigating the details related to the cargo.
Close international cooperation and information exchange with Estonian authorities are underway to investigate the matter. The police are investigating the incident and will provide more information as soon as possible.
The Llyod’s list story alleged that The hi-tech equipment on board was abnormal for a merchant ship and consumed more power from the ship’s generator, leading to repeated blackouts, a source familiar with the vessel who provided commercial maritime services to it as recently as seven months ago.
Llyod’s List in its story wrote, “The tanker slowed and dragged its anchor around the cable around midday, December 25, Finland’s police said. Another three cables were also damaged. The source, who declined to be identified to protect their safety, supplied at least 60 confidential documents about Eagle S to Lloyd’s List in June, including the vetting report that outlined many safety deficiencies discovered during an inspection undertaken while at anchor in Danish waters that month.
The source has since provided additional information, telling Lloyd’s List that an unauthorised person, who was not a seafarer, had been identified on board Eagle S.
They said listening and recording equipment was brought on to the 20-year-old tanker via “huge portable suitcases” along with “many laptops” that had keyboards for Turkish and Russian languages when calling at Türkiye and Russia.
The equipment was kept on the bridge or in the “monkey island” The monkey island is the top-most place on the ship.
The transmitting and receiving devices were used to record all radio frequencies, and upon reaching Russia were offloaded for analysis.
“They were monitoring all Nato naval ships and aircraft,” Lloyd’s List was told.
“They had all details on them. They were just matching their frequencies.
“Russians, Turkish, Indian radio officers were operating it.”
Eagle S also dropped “sensors-type devices” in the English Channel during a transit, they said.
They said no further equipment returned to the ship after it was offloaded for analysis, to their knowledge, but other devices were placed on another related tanker, Swiftsea Rider.
The tanker stood there for almost two months until it left on December 20 for St. Petersburg, where it spent less than 24 hours between December 22 and 23. The vessel returned to Ust-Luga on December 23 and left the Russian port 13 hours later.
A Finnish customs official said the tanker likely belongs to a shadow Russian fleet that provides oil exports from Russia to circumvent Western sanctions. According to Finnish authorities, the Eagle S was carrying unleaded gasoline shipped at a Russian port.
Claims that Russian-linked merchant ships are being used for spying and sabotage activities in the Baltic Sea where Russia is surrounded by Nato allies underscores the rising geopolitical tension in the region amid calls by European political leaders for increased maritime infrastructure defence.
This is the first time that a ship suspected of sabotaging undersea infrastructure has been taken into custody by authorities. The Eagle S tanker was in the vicinity of the Estlink 2 cable around the time it was disrupted. According to Finnish Police, the Border Guard patrol ship Turva contacted the Eagle S for the first time on Christmas Day at around 6:30 pm. The Finnish coast guard vessel Turva escorted the tanker Eagle S off Porkkala in the early evening on Christmas Day.
International maritime conventions do not allow for ships to be detained as they sail through territorial waters of countries under what is called the right of innocent passage, with prior vessels suspected of cable sabotage this year leaving waters without being fully investigated.
According to Yle news report, The tanker Eagle S, which left the port of Ust-Luga in Russia, was on its way to Port Said, Egypt. However, on Wednesday afternoon, Christmas Day, it made a U-turn, according to the website Marine Traffic. The tanker turned back towards Russia at around 1:50 pm Finnish time and proceeded about half a kilometre backwards on its route. It then hooked back onto its original route at around 2:20 pm. The manoeuvre occurred about an hour and a half after the ship had crossed the Estlink 2 cable. The reason behind this series of turns is not yet known.
According to western media reports siting sources and marine traffic service providers, Police suspect tanker damaged telecom cables. The Eagle S tanker sailed over several underwater communication cables around the same time the operating companies detected damage.
The tanker passed over the data cables between 6 and 7 pm on Wednesday evening, according to the MarineTraffic service, which tracks maritime traffic. Two of the damaged cables are owned by telecom operator Elisa. In addition to Elisa’s cables, authorities also reported disruptions in two other data cables belonging to Chinese-owned CITIC Telecom and Finnish state-owned company Cinia.
According to Elisa’s security director Jaakko Wallenius, the company detected the breaks because its system immediately alerted them to the issue. The damage occurred just a few hours after the Estlink 2 electricity cable between Finland and Estonia suffered damage. The Finnish police suspect the Eagle S vessel of being responsible for the cable damage.
Western media allegedly highlighted the ship being investigated as part of Russia’s shadow fleet. However, your channel National Defence contacted the managing company Peninsular Maritime India Pvt Ltd that is managing the ship from last one and half year.
Llyod’s list story quoting sources did mention that the crew on Eagle S would have been aware of its spying activities “as this could not be hidden” but were “threatened with their life, so everybody kept quiet”. “They have replaced captains when they raised this issue,” they said. However, Shravan Kumar denied allegations of any such spying activities.
Your channel National Defence contacted Ministry of External Affairs for a response on the matter, however it did not yield any result so far.
Recent Joint Expeditionary Force meeting at Tallinn highlighted that NATO and Baltic countries are very senstitive and alert to any Russian hybrid threat and want to take on alleged Russian shadow fleet that supplies Russian oil and gas to European countries circumventing sanctions on Russia.
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