Spectacular operation in the Baltic Sea: a ship with a Russian crew, forcibly stopped after cutting submarine cables. The Finns got off the helicopter
The border police detained, following a spectacular aerial intervention, a cargo ship with a mostly Russian crew in the Gulf of Finland. It would have intentionally damaged submarine communications cables between Estonia and Finland. The operation was filmed and made public by the authorities.
Images of the intervention were made public and quickly spread online.
The vessel, which flew the flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and was registered in Saint Petersburg, was carrying a crew of mainly Russian sailors.
According to the Finnish authorities, the Fitburg was intentionally sailing with the anchor down, damaging several cables belonging to the telecommunications operator Elisa on the Tallinn-Helsinki route.
Finnish police intervention PHOTO: video capture
The vessel was spotted by a Border Patrol boat and the crew was ordered to stop.
In a video published by the Finnish authorities, the special operation can be seen: a detachment of the Coast Guard took off with an Airbus Super Puma OH-HVG helicopter and made a rope descent directly onto the ship's deck.
Images captured by cameras mounted on the agents' equipment show soldiers wearing bulletproof vests and armed with machine guns moving onto the deck and climbing the stairs of the ship to take control of it.
Following the intervention, all 14 crew members – citizens of Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan – were detained. Two of them were arrested and two others were banned from leaving the territory of Finland.
The incident took place on January 31, 2025. The Fitburg was unable to leave the Gulf of Finland after the submarine cable was damaged and is currently under investigation by the Finnish authorities, who are looking into the possibility of an act of sabotage.
The Helsinki authorities did not rule out regional security implications, in the context of increased tensions in the Baltic Sea area and the strategic importance of the submarine communications infrastructure.
