Seized vessel Fitburg rests in the harbour, in Kirkkonummi, Finland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva via AP)
A vessel seized in Finland suspected of damaging a telecommunications cable between Helsinki and Tallinn was transporting Russian steel targeted by European Union sanctions, Finnish Customs said.
Finnish police on Dec. 31 detained the Fitburg, a 132-meter-long cargo ship en route from St. Petersburg, Russia, to Haifa, Israel, and its 14 crew members following suspicion the ship's anchor had damaged the subsea telecoms cable in the Gulf of Finland.
"Preliminary information indicated that the cargo consisted of steel products originating in Russia, which are subject to extensive sanctions imposed on Russia," Finnish Customs said in a statement.
"According to the assessment of experts at Finnish Customs, the structural steel in question falls under the EU's sectoral sanctions," it said.
Finnish police said they were investigating the damaged cable incident as "aggravated criminal damage, attempted aggravated criminal damage, and aggravated interference with telecommunications."
The Fitburg is flagged from St Vincent and Grenadines, and its 14 crew members, from Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, were detained.
Two of the crew members were on Jan. 1 placed under arrest and two others were placed under a travel ban.
Energy and communications infrastructure, including underwater cables and pipelines, have been damaged in the Baltic Sea in recent years.
Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, many experts and political leaders have viewed the suspected cable sabotage as part of a "hybrid war" carried out by Russia against Western countries.
