Russian-Linked Oil Tanker Suspected Of Sabotage Was Brimming With Spy Equipment: Report

The Eagle S – a tanker ship carrying Russian oil and suspected of severing the Estlink 2 power cable running under the Baltic Sea between Finland and Estonia – was reportedly brimming with spy equipment. The cable incident is the latest in a series of such events in this strategically important region as tensions with Russia have mounted in the wake of its war on Ukraine.

After being seized by Finnish Police, the Eagle S was found to be “kitted out with special transmitting and receiving devices that were used to monitor naval activity, according to a source with direct involvement in the ship,” Lloyds List reported. That equipment “effectively allowed it to become a ‘spy ship’ for Russia.”

“The hi-tech equipment on board was abnormal for a merchant ship and consumed more power from the ship’s generator, leading to repeated blackouts, a source familiar with the vessel who provided commercial maritime services to it as recently as seven months ago,” the publication noted.

The “listening and recording equipment was brought on to the 20-year-old tanker via ‘huge portable suitcases’ along with ‘many laptops’ that had keyboards for Turkish and Russian languages when calling at Türkiye and Russia,” Lloyd’s List reported. “The equipment was kept on the bridge or in the ‘monkey island,’ the uppermost portion of the ship.”

“The transmitting and receiving devices were used to record all radio frequencies, and upon reaching Russia were offloaded for analysis,” the outlet added. “They were monitoring all NATO naval ships and aircraft. They had all details on them. They were just matching their frequencies.”

The equipment was being operated by “Russians, Turkish, Indian radio officers,” Lloyds List stated.

”Eagle S also dropped ‘sensors-type devices’ in the English Channel during a transit,” the publication’s sources claimed.

The War Zone cannot independently verify these claims, however, a shipping industry security source told us that they “are plausible.”

After the Eagle S was seen in the location within the Finnish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) where the Estlink 2 cable was severed, the Finnish police, in cooperation with other authorities, boarded and seized the 750-foot-long, Cook Island-flagged oil tanker and took it into their territorial waters. Finnish authorities also launched a criminal investigation.

“The Helsinki Police Department and the Border Guard have conducted a tactical operation on the vessel,” the Finnish Police said in a statement on Thursday. “The authorities have taken investigative measures on the vessel, with access there provided by the Finnish Border Guard and the Defence Forces helicopters. The police are also looking into other possible damages in the maritime area.”

Finnish investigators believe Eagle S may have caused the damage by dragging its anchor along the seabed, Reuters reported.

United Arab Emirates-based Caravella LLCFZ, which owns the vessel according to MarineTraffic data, did not respond to our request for comment.

The 658 megawatt (MW) Estlink 2 outage began at midday local time on Wednesday, leaving only the 358 MW Estlink 1 linking Finland and Estonia, the countries’ electricity grid operators told Reuters. The following day, officials said that four telecommunications cables connecting Estonia with Finland under the Baltic Sea were also out of service.

Friday morning, Finnish President Alex Stubb said that “the situation is under control.”

“We have no reason to be concerned,” he added on Twitter. “We are investigating what happened.”

Kokoonnuimme tänään tasavallan presidentin ja ulko- ja turvallisuuspoliittisen ministerivaliokunnan ylimääräiseen yhteiskokoukseen. Käsittelimme Suomenlahden kaapelivaurioita.
 
Kolme viestiäni:
 
1. Suomella on vahva kyky vastata tämän kaltaisiin tilanteisiin. Viranomaisemme… pic.twitter.com/O1cjk7RGrX

— Alexander Stubb (@alexstubb) December 27, 2024

As a result of the suspected sabotage, NATO is boosting its Baltic Sea presence and the U.S. may as well.

After Estonia experienced power outages following the severing of Estlink 2 on Dec. 25, its officials, along with those from Finland, asked NATO for help protecting the Estlink 1 undersea power cable about 25 miles to the west. On Friday, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte responded by saying the alliance will “enhance” its presence in the Baltic Sea without offering any details. When asked for specifics by The War Zone, a NATO spokesman declined to “provide operational details at this time.”

Spoke w/ @alexstubb about the ongoing Finnish-led investigation into possible sabotage of undersea cables. I expressed my full solidarity and support. #NATO will enhance its military presence in the Baltic Sea.

— Mark Rutte (@SecGenNATO) December 27, 2024

Meanwhile, the Estonian Navy sent the Raju, a 148-foot-long patrol boat to protect Estlink 1, which runs from Helsinki, Finland to Tallinn, Estonia.

“The Estonian Navy is commencing the protection of the Estlink 1 sea cable with the patrol ship Raju, cooperating with the Finnish Navy and the Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO (SACEUR) to secure energy connections between Estonia and Finland,” the Estonian Navy said on Twitter.

The Estonian Navy is commencing the protection of the Estlink 1 sea cable with the patrol ship Raju, cooperating with the Finnish Navy and the Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO (SACEUR) to secure energy connections between Estonia and Finland. pic.twitter.com/YGctwT6D8z

— Estonian Defence Forces | Eesti Kaitsevägi (@Kaitsevagi) December 27, 2024

A spokesman for General Christopher G. Cavoli, the SACUER, told us he is considering a “serious” response that could involve U.S. assets.

“The Supreme Allied Commander Europe has followed this closely since the beginning,” SACUER spokesman Martin O’Donnell told The War Zone. “The possible sabotage of undersea cables is a serious matter, and it requires an equally serious and thoughtful response.”

Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) “has options and assets from 32 countries, including the U.S., available to respond,” he added. “SHAPE, in close coordination with Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum, Allied Maritime Command, and the involved nations are coordinating employment of those options and assets, but I am not in a position to provide further operational details at this time.”

A spokesman for the Finnish military declined comment, deferring questions to the Finnish police, who are leading the investigation into the cable rupture.

The suspected sabotage of the Estlink 2 power cable is the most recent of several such incidents.

In November, Germany said damage to two communication cables running under the Baltic Sea was most likely the result of sabotage. The two cables in question are both fiber-optic communication cables, running along the Baltic seabed. One of these runs between the Swedish island of Gotland and Lithuania, and the other between Finland and Germany. Gotland is about 280 miles southwest of where the Estlink 2 cable was severed.

A day later, Denmark confirmed it was monitoring a Chinese cargo vessel at the center of allegations surrounding that damage. The 735-foot-long Yi Peng 3 was identified as operating near the cables when the incidents occurred. The Chinese vessel had departed the Russian port of Ust-Luga, in the Leningrad region, close to the Estonian border, on Nov. 15 and had been scheduled to sail to Port Said, Egypt, where it was originally due to arrive on Dec. 3.

Based on publicly available ship-tracking data, the Yi Peng 3 appears to have passed overhead both of the cables around the same time incidents of damage were first reported.

According to the German newspaper Kieler Nachrichten, when the damage to the C-Lion1 cable was confirmed, the Yi Peng “stopped, drifted, and sailed two circles in the sea area south of Öland for almost 90 minutes.”

“No one believes that the cables were accidentally damaged,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said at the time. “I also don’t want to believe that the ships’ anchors caused the damage by accident. We have to assume, without certain information, that the damage is caused by sabotage.”

Other suspicious activities have taken place in the Baltic Sea, including suspected sabotage.

Most notoriously, there was a series of explosions along the Nord Stream gas pipelines in 2022. The cause of these is still being investigated by German authorities however The Wall Street Journal reported in August that it was a Ukrainian sabotage operation. Ukrainian officials denied that accusation.

Outside of the Baltic, there have been other incidents of reported sabotage of critical communications cables, including one associated with Evenes Air Station, in northern Norway, which happened in April, but was only disclosed in August, as TWZ reported at the time. Norway has seen other suspicious incidents in the past, notably the cutting of a vital undersea cable connecting Svalbard to mainland Norway in 2022.

While the Baltic Sea has long been of strategic significance for both Russia and NATO and its allies, there has been a spike in incidents in these waters since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Though no blame has yet been officially assigned for the Estlink 2 cable cut, the fact that a Russian-connected ship packed with surveillance equipment is suspected only adds to the regional tension.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com