High representative for EU foreign and security policy On Monday, Kaja Kallasová warned against the so-called shadow fleet of Russia. In an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt, she promised that Brussels will take stronger measures following the suspicion of sabotage of an undersea electric cable off the coast of Finland. TASR informs about it according to the DPA agency.
“The Russian ‘shadow fleet’ threatens the environment and finances the Russian war budget,” said the new head of EU diplomacy. According to her, the Union will take tougher steps against the risks posed by these ships. On Wednesday, the Estlink 2 submarine power cable between Estonia and Finland was damaged. On suspicion of sabotage, the Finnish authorities detained the oil tanker Eagle S, which sails under the flag of the Cook Islands and whose anchor, according to DPA, probably damaged the cable.
According to the EU, this vessel could belong to of Russia’s shadow fleet – these are tankers and other cargo ships that Moscow unofficially uses to circumvent sanctions imposed on the transportation of oil, explained the German agency. Kallas, a former Estonian prime minister, claims that since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, there has been a sharp increase in sabotage in Europe.
“The recent sabotage attempts in the Baltic Sea are not isolated incidents, but form a deliberate pattern aimed at damaging our digital and energy infrastructure,” she said in an interview published on Monday.
German Foreign Minister Annalena also warned against the Russian shadow fleet on Saturday Baerbockwhich also called on the EU to tighten sanctions. According to her, this is a serious threat to the environment and European security. “Nowadays, ships damage important submarine cables in the Baltic Sea almost every month,” she pointed out.
Submarine cables often have technical failures and outages caused by accidents. However, in the Baltic Sea in recent years there have been several suspected failures of electrical and telecommunication cables and gas pipelines, which have been investigated as sabotage.
On November 17 and 18, two telecommunication cables were damaged in the Swedish territorial waters of the Baltic Sea. One provides an internet connection between Lithuania and the Swedish island of Gotland, the other connects the Finnish metropolis of Helsinki with the German port city of Rostock. Authorities in Sweden, Finland, Germany and Denmark began investigating the case.
