Tech Desk 
Dec 29, 2024
Referring to the reported sabotage of the undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia, Germany on Saturday termed it as a “wake-up call” pointing to the enforcement of new EU sanctions against Russia’s “shadow fleet”.
These remarks come on the heels of the recent discord from the grid of the Estlink 2 cable on Wednesday. The cable carries electricity from Finland to Estonia.
It should be noted that the connectivity rift came a month following the cut-off of two telecommunications cables in Swedish territorial waters in the Baltic.
“It’s more than difficult to still believe in coincidences. This is an urgent wake-up call for all of us,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in a statement, according to Dawn.
“Almost every month, ships are damaging major undersea cables in the Baltic Sea. Crews are leaving anchors in the water, dragging them for kilometres along the seafloor for no apparent reason, and then losing them when pulling them up,” she added.
She urged “new European sanctions against the Russian shadow fleet”, ships carrying Russian crude and oil products which is viewed as a blatant violation of sanctions imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
As part of a broader probe into “aggravated sabotage” of the Estlink cable, Eagle S, the oil tanker that sailed from a Russian port, is currently being investigated by Finnish authorities.
