Investigators found that the Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3, departing from the Russian port of Ust-Luga, dropped anchor in Swedish waters on the evening of November 17 and moved like this for more than 100 miles, first cutting the cable between Sweden and Lithuania, and the next day — the cable between Germany and Finland, reports The World Street Journal.
«It is highly unlikely that the captain did not notice that his ship had dropped anchor and was dragging it, losing speed for several hours and cutting cables along the way», — said a senior European investigator involved in the case.
At this time, the ship's transponder, which tracks its movements, was turned off, which, as the publication writes, is called a «dark incident». The bulk carrier continued to move despite the dragging anchor significantly reducing its speed — the speed reduction is confirmed by satellite and other data. Shortly after the second cable was cut, the freighter raised the anchor.
The damage to the underwater cables occurred in Swedish waters on November 17-18, prompting the country's authorities to launch an investigation into sabotage.
«Given the mild weather conditions and manageable wave height, the likelihood of accidental anchoring seems minimal», — states an analysis prepared for The Wall Street Journal by the analytical company Kpler, which provides real-time international shipping data.
The Chinese bulk carrier is now guarded by a small flotilla of ships belonging to Denmark, Germany, and Sweden. According to international maritime law, NATO ships cannot force the Yi Peng 3 to enter one of their ports. Authorities in Sweden and Germany are negotiating with the ship's owner to gain access to it and interrogate its crew.
According to Benjamin Schmitt, a senior fellow at the Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, from 2019 to March 2024, the freighter Yi Peng 3 operated exclusively in Chinese waters, and then began transporting cargo from Russian ports in the Japanese, Barents, and Baltic Seas. The ship is currently loaded with Russian fertilizers.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Western officials have accused the Kremlin of conducting a shadow war on NATO territory in Europe to destabilize the West, including organizing attacks on underwater pipelines and data cables in the Baltic and Arctic.
In October last year, a China-registered ship named New Polar Bear cut the Balticconnector gas pipeline and a telecommunications cable connecting Finland and Estonia with its anchor, while Russian sailors were also on board the Chinese ship.
Photo: Mikkel Berg Pedersen/ Zuma Press