Chinese cargo ship suspected in Baltic Sea cable sabotage

The Chinese ship Yi Peng 3, which has been in the Kattegat Strait since Tuesday, is suspected of damaging two telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea. The ship is closely monitored by the Danish navy. Danish station Danmarks Radio reported on Friday that the ship has a damaged anchor. The station released footage after approaching the Yi Peng 3 vessel.

According to experts interviewed by the channel, the ends of the anchor appear to be twisted in an unusual way. Jens Wenzel Kristoffersen, a defense analyst at Nordic Defence Analysis, speaking to the station, said that it is natural that in the case of this type of incident, the cause is investigated to see if the ship could have damaged the cables with its anchor.

Meanwhile, Swedish military personnel are investigating areas where the submarine cables were severed on behalf of the prosecutor's office in Stockholm. They are assisted by underwater drones in the challenging weather conditions in the deep sea. Swedish police have launched an investigation into possible sabotage.

In the Baltic Sea, two submarine telecommunications cables were damaged: one connecting Lithuania with Sweden and the other connecting Finland with Germany. The incidents occurred in the Swedish economic zone, southeast of Gotland Island and south of Öland Island. The Yi Peng 3 set sail from one of the oil ports in Russia.

"No one believes that the cables were accidentally damaged. I also don’t want to believe that the ships’ anchors caused the damage by accident," said Boris Pistorius, the German defense minister, as quoted by Reuters. A similar incident occurred last year when the Chinese container ship NewNew Polar Bear damaged a gas pipeline between Estonia and Finland.