Eagle S tanker seized over damage to Estlink 2 power cable

On 25 December 2024, the Estlink 2 undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia suddenly went offline in the Gulf of Finland. Several telecommunications cables on the seabed were also reported damaged. The outage came at a time of heightened concern in Europe about sabotage of undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea.

Finnish authorities quickly focused on the Eagle S, an oil tanker flying the flag of the Cook Islands that had been travelling from Russia towards Egypt. Finland's Border Guard and police boarded and took control of the vessel, which was brought into Finnish waters, and opened a criminal investigation. Investigators suspected that the ship had dragged its anchor along the seabed. Officials and many commentators linked the vessel to Russia's so-called shadow fleet, a group of ageing tankers used to move sanctioned oil, although the ship's operators denied wrongdoing.

The case mattered because it was among the first times a European state had seized a ship over suspected cable damage. It tested how far coastal states can act in their exclusive economic zone, and it prompted NATO to step up patrols in the Baltic. Estlink 2 was out of service for weeks while repairs were carried out.