Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said that an underwater power cable between his country and Estonia failed on Christmas Day.
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said that an underwater power cable between his country and Estonia failed on Christmas Day.
"The Estlink 2 line between Finland and Estonia went out of order this afternoon. Even on Christmas, authorities remain vigilant and are investigating the incident. It will not affect the electricity supply to Finns," a Finnish government official said on social media X.
According to Arto Pahkin, one of the heads of the Finnish electricity grid operator Fingrid, the cause of the incident is being investigated by law enforcement, and they do not rule out terrorism or vandalism.
According to the national broadcaster Yle, two ships were sailing in the area of the cable at the time of the incident . But Pakhkin declined to say which ships they were.
According to MarineTraffic, one of these vessels was the Hong Kong-flagged container ship Xin Xin Tian 2. The vessel was near an electrical cable when contact was lost.
The other vessel recorded at the scene of the incident was the Cook Islands-flagged oil tanker Eagle S, which was en route from St. Petersburg to Egypt.
At the same time, according to Lloyd's List, which reports on maritime transportation, the tanker Eagle S is part of the so-called dark fleet that transports Russian oil.
The vessel is about 20 years old, poses a security and environmental threat, its true owner is unknown, and its sole mission is to transport oil from a country under sanctions.
According to the monitoring service Marinetraffic, the Lloyd's List vessel in question clearly slowed down around the time the cable damage was discovered.
As dev.ua previously wrote, submarine cable breaks caused five times more damage to traffic between Europe and Asia than researchers previously stated.
Recall that in early December, the Global Connect Internet cable between Finland and Sweden was damaged in two places on land.
