Estlink 2 damage was accident, not sabotage: Washington Post

The damage of the Estlink 2 submarine cable that have rattled European security officials in recent months were likely the result of maritime accidents rather than Russian sabotage, reported US based newspaper the Washington Post referring to several U.S. and European intelligence officials.

The determination reflects an emerging consensus among U.S. and European security services, said the report, quoting senior officials from three countries involved in ongoing investigations of a string of incidents in which critical seabed energy and communications lines have been severed.

Pekka Toveri, who represents Finland in the European Parliament and previously served as the country’s top military intelligence official, however, said that the seabed cases are part of “a typical hybrid operation” from Moscow, said the Washington Post report.

“The most important thing in any hybrid operation is deniability,” said the report, quoting Toveri as saying, adding that Russia’s security services might have succeeded in not leaving “any proof that would hold up in court.”

Toveri and others cited anomalies in the behavior of the vessels involved as well as evidence that Russia has for decades devoted extensive resources — including a dedicated military unit known as the General Staff Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research — to mapping Western seabed infrastructure and identifying its vulnerabilities, the report added.

Earlier on January 9, the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom inspectors found 32 deficiencies in the Eagle S. Three of the deficiencies were so serious that they led to the ship being detained.

On January 6, anchor of the Eagle S has been recovered from the Gulf of Finland.

On December 31, 2024, seven staff members of tanker Eagle S whose status in the criminal investigation is that of a suspect have been subjected to a travel ban.

Police on December 28, transferred the Eagle S tanker, the suspect of Estlink 2 submarine cable damage from the Gulf of Finland to the Svartbeck inner anchorage near Porvoo.

Finnish authorities suspected the Eagle S, a tanker registered in the Cook Islands for its involvement in the rupture of the Estlink 2 submarine power transmission cable between Finland and Estonia on December 25.

The electricity transmission cable has been cut in the sea area in Finland's exclusive economic zone in the Gulf of Finland, about 55 km south of Loviisa.