Tanker accused of Baltic sabotage allowed to leave Finnish waters

The Finnish authorities said yesterday they have released the Eagle S, a tanker seized in December 2024 over suspicions that it had deliberately cut undersea cables in the Baltic. A criminal investigation into the episode will continue, authorities said.

The Finnish police said that since the criminal inquiry “has progressed”, the ageing tanker was free to leave and that border officials had escorted the ship out of the country’s territorial waters.

Finnish prime minister Petteri Orpo said in an interview with Yle, the country’s public broadcaster, that “the criminal process and investigation will continue”.

Eight crewmembers are suspected of criminal offences, including aggravated criminal mischief and aggravated interference with communications, the police said. Five have been allowed to leave Finland recently, while the other three are still barred from leaving.

Police and border guards boarded the Cook Islands-flagged LR1 tanker Eagle S carrying oil from Russia to Egypt after the 170-km-long, 650 MW Estlink 2 broke down on December 25 last year, one in a series of attacks on cables and pipelines in the Baltic Sea in recent months.

Seabed gas pipelines, power cables and fibre optic cables have all been attacked – likely by merchant ships dragging their anchors – in recent months across the Baltic, forcing NATO to establish Baltic Sentry, a naval protection operation. Baltic Sentry involves a range of assets, including frigates, submarines, maritime patrol aircraft, and drones. 

A joint statement from the heads of state or government of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden earlier this year noted: “Russia’s use of the so-called shadow fleet poses a particular threat to the maritime and environmental security in the Baltic Sea region and globally. This reprehensible practice also threatens the integrity of undersea infrastructure, increases risks connected to sea-dumped chemical munitions, and significantly supports funding of Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.”