Swedish prosecutors have released the vessel suspected of cutting a fibre-optic subsea cable between Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland after assessing the event as an accident, not sabotage.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority seized the Navibulgar-owned, 32,200 dwt bulker Vezhen on January 26.
Swedish authorities stated that the vessel’s anchor which caused the damage was dropped accidentally and that the cable was severed due to a combination of bad weather and bad equipment.
Senior prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said that the anchor was dropped without involvement from the crew. Two of the three locking mechanisms holding the anchor in place have been out of commission for some time and the third lock was hit by a wave which dropped the anchor.
He stated that there was no involvement by the crew and that film footage of the incident was reviewed so the incident was not a so-called hybrid attack. According to Ljungqvist, the ship dragged its anchor for more than 24 hours.
A Norwegian cargo ship with an all-Russian crew, the Silver Dania, was also seized at the request of Latvian authorities. It was released after inspection from Norwegian authorities.
Seabed gas pipelines, power cables and fibre optic cables have all been attacked – likely by merchant ships dragging their anchors – in recent months across the Baltic, forcing NATO to establish Baltic Sentry, a naval protection operation.
NATO stated that it would deploy frigates, aircraft, and naval drones to help protect critical infrastructure in the region and that it would take action against ships suspected of posing a threat.
Just yesterday, the 2008-built tanker Abha was reportedly apprehended by the German Navy near Bornholm, Denmark, due to “straying outside of shipping lanes and slowing down over the C-Lion1 submarine cable”.
The vessel took a strange route as well as slowing down a few times to 6-8.5 knots, which is consistent with previous cases of cable cutting. Israeli maritime intelligence firm Windward stated the vessel has been considered high-risk since March of last year due to its involvement with Russia.
It is owned by Kara Shipping while its beneficial owner is Armada Global Shipping. However, its previous manager, Fractal Marine, has been sanctioned by the UK government.
