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Agency Report
Following damage to an underwater power cable off Finland, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has raised alarm about the so-called Russian shadow fleet and called for further EU sanctions.
“Almost every month, ships are currently damaging important undersea cables in the Baltic Sea. Ship crews lower anchors into the water, drag them for kilometres across the seabed for no apparent reason and then lose them when they pull them up,” Baerbock told the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper chain on Saturday.
Baerbock said she finds it hard to believe these incidents are mere coincidences.
“This is an urgent wake-up call for all of us. In a digitalized world, undersea cables are the communication arteries that hold our world together,” the minister warned.
The Estlink 2 cable between Estonia and Finland was interrupted on Wednesday in what Finnish authorities suspect may have been an act of sabotage.
Following the disturbance, they detained the Cook Islands-flagged oil tanker Eagle S, the anchor of which is thought to have damaged the cable.
According to the EU, the ship could belong to the so-called Russian shadow fleet – tankers and other cargo ships that Russia uses unofficially to circumvent sanctions on oil transport, for example.
Over the holiday season, disruptions to communication cables in the Baltic Sea were also reported.
Baerbock warned that the “decrepit Russian shadow fleet” poses a serious threat to both the environment and European security. “It is used by Russia to finance its illegal war of aggression in Ukraine,” she said.
In mid-December, over 50 ships were subject to EU sanctions and more must follow, Baerbock said.
