Within a few hours, several data cables and a gas pipeline were destroyed on the seabed, including a data cable that runs between Estonia and Sweden.
Since before, the Chinese ship NewNew Polarbear, which has connections to Russiahas been singled out by both Finnish and Estonian authorities, but it has not been confirmed how the suspected sabotage took place.
Bottom track from anchor
In an interview with SVT, Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur now says that there are bottom traces from the ship’s anchor that connect the various destroyed lines and data cables.
– All these incidents with a Finnish cable, a gas line and a Swedish data cable, they are all connected. They have been destroyed by human hands, probably by an anchor. We have mapped and filmed the seabed and have a very good overview of what happened and now the question is whether this country and the company in China that owns the ship are prepared to cooperate.
Do you suspect this was done on purpose?
– We are still in the investigation phase but let’s be honest: if you have an anchor hanging loose for more than 100 nautical miles (185 kilometers), then it is not very likely, it is hard to believe that it was just an accident. The captain understood that there was something wrong, so then the question we have to find out is whether it was on purpose.
So you are saying that the anchor was dragged along the seabed over large parts of the Baltic Sea?
– That is what happened and that is also why we can say that these incidents are connected, says Hanno Pevkur.
Sweden confirms the picture
The image is also confirmed from the Swedish side:
– The submarine salvage vessel Belos has made dives and they have established that the events that have taken place now are obviously coordinated, both in terms of time and in terms of geography, and that these cables have been affected by external influences, says Minister of Defense Pål Jonson (M).
SVT has previously tried to reach the owners of the Chinese ship.