WW3 panic as EU threatens to sanction Russia over 'sabotage ship'

The European Union is threatening to impose further sanctions on Russia after Finland seized a Kremlin-linked ship suspected of sabotaging an undersea power cable on Christmas Day.

Electricity transmission with Estonia through the ESTlink 2 connection was cut on December 25 at 12.26pm local time, according to the Finnish grid operator.

A coastguard crew boarded the Eagle S crude oil tanker and sailed it into Finnish waters just after the transmission through the cable - which links Finland with Estonia under the Baltic Sea - was cut.

The vessel had been intercepted at the site of the cable and was flying the flag of the Cook Islands at the time, Finnish media reported.

“From our side we are investigating grave sabotage,” said Robin Lardot, director of the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation.

According to Finnish news agency SST, the ship is part of Russia’s “shadow fleet”, which bolsters the Kremlin’s finances by transporting embargoed oil around the world.

“According to our understanding, an anchor of the vessel that is under investigation has caused the damage,” Lardot continued.

The European Commission has responded that it will “propose further measures, including sanctions, to target this fleet”.

“We strongly condemn any deliberate destruction of Europe’s critical infrastructure,” it added. “The suspected vessel is part of Russia’s shadow fleet, which threatens security and the environment, while funding Russia’s war budget.”

According to the global ship tracking website MarineTraffic, the vessel was travelling from St Petersburg to Egypt. The vessel noticeably slowed down around the time transmission was disrupted, the tracking data shows, The Telegraph reported.

Based on the data, the Finnish patrol vessel Turva escorted the tanker to waters off Porkkalanniemi, a peninsula on the Gulf of Finland, on Wednesday evening, public broadcaster Yle reported.

“The risks posed by Russian shadow fleet vessels must be averted,” wrote Alexander Stubb, the Finnish president, on X.

Police are also investigating “whether the foreign cargo ship” Xin Xin Tian 2 carrying the Hong Kong flag “is connected to the damage”.

The Estonian chairman of foreign affairs said “closing the Baltic Sea to vessels flying certain flags should not be ruled out” if assumptions about sabotage turned out to be true.

This is not the first time that the Baltic Sea has been the victim of infrastructure incidents since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In October 2023, the Hong Kong-registered Newnew Polar Bear cargo ship - a sister ship to the Xin Xin Tian 2, according to Swedish paper Aftonbladet - was linked to damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline, with Chinese authorities claiming it was an accident.

In mid-November two data cables, running between Finland and Germany and Lithuania and Sweden respectively were severed, with the Chinese vessel Yi Peng 3 suspected of involvement.

The Swedish foreign minister said on December 23 that China denied a request for prosecutors to conduct an investigation on the vessel Yi Peng 3, and that the ship left the area it had been anchored in despite the investigation.

China confirmed the cargo ship had departed in order to “ensure the physical and mental wellbeing of the crew” after being “suspended for a long period of time.”