Finnish police and the Border Guard Service launched a joint investigation on Thursday into damage to the EstLink 2 underwater electricity cable connecting the power grids of Finland and Estonia.
The Finnish police said in a press release:
“The police, together with border guards and other authorities, are investigating the chain of events of the case and whether a foreign cargo vessel is involved in the damage.”
The agency emphasised that at the moment “it is not possible to provide additional information on the case at this stage.”
The emergency shutdown of the Estlink 2 Finnish-Estonian power cable occurred at 12:26 local time on Wednesday. The cable was put back into service in September after extensive repairs since the beginning of the year “due to a fault.” Damage was sought for almost two months, before replacing a section of the cable over 300 metres long with a new one.
As Iltalehti reported citing data from MarineTraffic, the container ship Xin Xin Tian 2, sailing under the flag of Hong Kong, on December 24 was near the site of the EstLink 2 electric cable in the Gulf of Finland. Finnish power operator Fingrid said the company “cannot rule out sabotage” of the cable related to the vessel.
In November, the Chinese cargo ship Yi Peng 3 was suspected of cutting two crucial communication cables in the Baltic Sea. According to Swedish authorities, they may have been damaged by the anchor of the Chinese vessel Yi Peng 3. Later it was reported that China allowed EU investigators to board the dry cargo ship.
