Danish Navy patrol vessel HDMS Rota (P525) which intercepted Yi Peng 3 in the Danish Straits. (Source: Larsen under CC BY-SA 3.0)
Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 remains stopped in the Danish Straits with a Navy patrol ship in close proximity. The vessel is suspected of being involved in the damage of two subsea communication cables in the Baltic Sea earlier this week.
Yi Peng 3 was traveling from the Russian port of Ust-Luga to Port Said, Egypt and passed in proximity of the Finnish-German and Swedish-Lithuanian cables around the time they stopped working.
The bulk carrier passed through the Kattegat sea area yesterday evening with Danish Navy patrols in close pursuit. Around 8pm CET time Yi Peng 3 departed from the main shipping corridor, slowed down, and has remained at anchor since then. Danish Navy patrol vessel HDMS Rota (P525) has remained on site since then, with the larger HDMS Søløven (Y311) circling in the area several hours later.
The Danish Armed Forces confirmed on X that it is “present” in the area near the ship, but it remains unconfirmed if Danish Navy personnel inspected or boarded the vessel.
Officials in neighboring countries involved in the incident, including Sweden and Germany, commented on the matter during an EU meeting of Ministers of Defense in Brussels yesterday.
Carl-Oskar Bohlin, Sweden’s Civil Defence Minister, confirmed, “We can verify that military and Coast Guard units have detected vessel movements matching the timing and location of the disruptions.”
German Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, bluntly stated. “No one believes that these cables were cut by accident. I also don’t subscribe to theories suggesting that ship anchors caused the damage to the cables.”
“We have to assume, without certain information, that the damage is caused by sabotage,” he continued.
Hybrid warfare targeting critical subsea infrastructure has been on the rise and European officials were quick to condemn the incident and promise a thorough investigation.
In contrast to last year’s Balticonnector incident involving NewNew Polar Bear, authorities appear to have acted swiftly to investigate the incident and secure evidence. NewNew Polar Bear had returned to Russian waters along the Arctic Northern Sea Route when its missing anchor was spotted and an investigation was launched.
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