Finnish police say the Russian ship may have dragged its anchor 60 miles.

Helsinki, Finland — Finnish investigators looking into damage to a Baltic Sea power cable and several data cables say they have found evidence of an anchor being dragged on the seabed by a ship believed to be linked to Russia, which has been seized for investigation.

The Estlink-2 power cable, which transmits power from Finland to Estonia across the Baltic Sea, failed on December 25 after an apparent break. Little effect on services, but followed earlier damage to two data cables and Nord Stream gas pipelinesboth were called provocations.

Finnish police chief investigator Sami Paila said late on Sunday that the trail had been “dragged for tens of kilometers”.

“Our current understanding is that the drag mark in question refers to the anchor of the Eagle S. We have been able to clarify this through underwater investigations,” Paila told Finnish national television Yle.

“I can say that we have a preliminary understanding of what happened at sea, how the anchor mark was created there,” Paila said, without elaborating. He also emphasized that “the issue of purpose is an absolutely important issue that must be clarified in the preliminary investigation, and as the investigation continues, this issue will be clarified.”

On Saturday, the ship was taken to an inland anchorage near the port of Porvoo to facilitate the investigation, officials said. He is being investigated on felony charges of aggravated interference with telecommunications, aggravated vandalism and aggravated regulatory violation.

The ship is flagged in the Cook Islands but has been described by Finnish customs officials and the European Union’s executive commission as part of Russia’s shadow fleet of fuel tankers. These are old ships of obscure ownership, bought to evade Western sanctions against Russia during the Ukraine war and operating without Western-regulated insurance.

Russia’s use of the ships has raised environmental concerns about accidents, given their age and uncertain insurance coverage.

After the cable break, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said last week that the military alliance, which Finland joined last year, would step up patrols in the Baltic Sea region, where tensions have risen since Russia launched a large-scale invasion. Ukraine in February 2022.

Finland, which shares an 832-mile border with Russia, abandoned decades of neutrality amid Russia’s war on Ukraine and joined NATO in 2023.

About 7 months after the Russian invasion, a series of underwater explosions occurred in the Nord Stream pipelines built to transport Russian gas to Europe. The cause is not yet confirmed, but it is in Germany searched for three Ukrainian citizens a person suspected of causing provocation must be interrogated.

In late November 2024, parts of two data cables were cut in Swedish territorial waters. Ship tracking websites show that the Chinese cargo ship Yi Peng 3 passed over the cables while they were being cut.

Russia scoffed at early speculation by European officials that the cables could be damaged as part of Moscow’s hybrid warfare efforts. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at the time that “it is quite absurd to continue to blame Russia for everything without any basis.”