Over the past few months, at least four incidents have occurred in the Baltic Sea, in which seaports were damaged, raising suspicions of sabotage conducted by Russia. However, the German-EU investigation has not found any authentic evidence to accuse Russia, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.
The first case recorded in October 2024 involved the Chinese cargo ship Newnew Polar Bear, which was discovered dragging and losing its anchor and severing two cables but was still allowed to continue its journey.
A month later, the Chinese cargo ship Yi Peng 3 was also suspected of damaging two telecommunications cables near Sweden's Gotland Island. Although Western intelligence initially suspected the ship's captain of acting under Moscow's orders, there was later no evidence to confirm the theory.
One of the most notable incidents was in December 2024, when the Russian tanker Eagle S was suspected of severing the Estlink 2 power cable connecting Finland and Estonia. However, after investigating and questioning the crew, the authorities still do not have enough evidence to arrest or prosecute.
In January 2025, the Bulgarian cargo ship Vezhen was detained for damaging underwater cables shortly after leaving the Russian port of Ust-Luga, but was released due to lack of evidence.
The WSJ quoted investigating officials as saying that proving this was intentional sabotage was extremely difficult. They need to collect clear evidence, instead of relying only on hypothetics or speculation.
Some Western experts still believe that this is part of a hybrid war waged by Russia, but so far, they have nothing in hand but speculation.
In response to the incidents, NATO launched the Baltic sentry mission in mid-January to strengthen monitoring and protection of undersea infrastructure.
On the Russian side, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied all allegations and called them unreasonable, asserting that the West continued to blame Moscow without any evidence.
