Sweden Discovers Traces Of Damage On Another Cable In Baltic Sea
- 14.01.2025, 16:12
The cable connects the Scandinavian country with Lithuania.
Damaged infrastructure of European countries continues to be found in the Baltic Sea. This time, traces of anchor drag were found on the NordBalt cable connecting Sweden with Lithuania, said the Kingdom's Minister of Civil Defense Carl-Oskar Bohlin, SVT reports. According to him, the incident involved the Chinese ship Yi Peng, which was anchored 160 km from the shore. The same bulk carrier is associated with the breaks in underwater telecommunications cables between Lithuania and Sweden (BCS East-West Interlink), as well as between Finland and Germany (C-Lion1) on November 17 and 18.
Bohlin did not answer the question of whether the ship was deliberately trying to damage the cables. “We can only say that if you drag an anchor for 150 kilometers, as happened in this case, you should at least notice it,” the Swedish minister noted. He also linked these events to the fact that the three Baltic countries will soon stop depending on Russian and Belarusian electricity.
Yi Peng 3 is a 217-meter-long dry cargo ship owned by Ningbo Yipeng Shipping, says the Chinese ship registry. According to Marinetraffic, just over two months ago the ship left the Mediterranean and headed to Russia via the Baltic. Then Yi Peng 3 stopped at the port of Ust-Luga in the Leningrad Region, from where it set off on its return journey to the southwest on November 11. It was in the area of the incident when the cables broke. The damaged telecommunications intersect over a 10 m² section. According to marine operators, there were other vessels near this square, but Yi Peng 3 attracted the attention of the Danish military due to the oddities in its route. When they stopped the dry cargo ship, it turned out that its captain was Russian citizen Alexander Stechentsev. In a conversation with the Agency, he said that he was a pilot on the ship, took it out of the port of Ust-Luga, but got off after an hour and a half of sailing and does not understand “how he was recorded as a Chinese crew.” Sweden is investigating the ship's involvement in the sabotage. It is being assisted by Finland, Lithuania, Germany and other countries.
Over the past 15 months, several cases of suspected sabotage of underwater cables have been recorded in the Baltic Sea. The most recent occurred on December 25 — then the EstLink 2 power cable connecting Finland with Estonia failed, as well as three more telecommunications cables between these same countries.