Insights

Finland has formally charged senior crew members of a Russia-linked Eagle S oil tanker suspected of damaging subsea gas and telecommunications cables between Finland and Estonia in late 2024. The incident, which occurred amid heightened tensions in the Baltic region following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, raised immediate concerns over the security of Europe’s critical undersea infrastructure.

This Estlink 2 electricity subsea cable between Finland and Estoniawas was damaged on 25 December 2024. The the Cook Islands-flagged tanker Eagle S was suspected to be responsible for the damage, which dragged its anchor over the seabed.

The Eagle S has been linked to the so-called “shadow fleet” used by Russia to bypass EU sanctions. The Eagle S tanker was seized during the investigation but left Finnish waters in March. The reason for abandoning the seizure claim was the associated unreasonably high costs. The cost of keeping the ship under arrest is hundreds of thousands of euros per month, plus the arrest guarantee of one million euros and several other additional costs, as a result of which the costs arising from the arrest may ultimately be greater than the value of the ship. In addition, it is extremely difficult to sell the ship during the litigation.

The damaged Estlink 2 was not able to be repaired until last week in early August, 2025, with an outage period of more than 7 months and a cost of repair up to €60 million.

The Finnish statement alleges that “the Eagle S, which left Russia’s Ust-Luga with a cargo of oil products, is suspected of cutting five submarine cables in the Gulf of Finland by dragging its anchor on the seabed for about 90 kilometers (56 miles).”

Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) announced that the ship’s captain and first officer—whose nationalities were not disclosed—have been charged with "endangering the safety of maritime traffic" and "damaging infrastructure."

Key evidence includes:

• Anchor drag marks matching the ship’s equipment near the damaged cables.

• Suspicious navigation patterns, including the vessel turning off its tracking system near the incident site.

• Intelligence reports suggesting Russian involvement, possibly using civilian ships as proxies to avoid direct blame.

Prosecutors said the owners of the cables have suffered a total of at least 60 million euros ($69.7 million) in repair costs.

The Finish statement said that the captain and first officer of the Eagle S oil tanker denied the allegations.

While Finland has not explicitly accused Russia of ordering the sabotage, Estonian officials have previously linked such actions to Russian hybrid warfare tactics—a combination of covert military operations and plausible deniability.

Moscow has denied any role, dismissing the charges as "baseless." However, the incident has intensified fears in NATO over vulnerabilities in undersea cables and pipelines, which are crucial for military communications and energy security.

Finnish authorities also identified the Chinese-owned, Hong Kong-flagged vessel NewNew Polar Bear as the prime suspect for sabotage of Baltic Sea gas pipeline and subsea cables running between Estonia and Finland in October 2023, noting its unusual movements near the site of the damage. The captain of the Newnew Polar Bear vessel was remanded in custody in Hong Kong in May 2025.