At around 5 a.m. local time, an undersea telecommunications cable between Estonia and Finland was damaged for the fourth time in roughly 1.5 years. Finnish special forces have taken control of the cargo ship Fitburg, detained its 14-member crew, and revealed that they were citizens of Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan.
Authorities are currently investigating whether the vessel's movement and anchoring caused the incident, reports Postimees. Despite the damage, the owner of the cable claims connectivity remains intact due to extensive network redundancy.
Elisa, a leading telecom provider in Estonia and Finland and the cable's owner, alerted authorities under standard incident protocols at around 5 a.m. Although the fault was located inside Estonia's exclusive economic zone, the ship crossed into Finnish waters shortly afterward, which allowed Finnish authorities to detain the vessel and open a criminal case. When the ship was detained, its anchor chain was in the sea, the report notes.
