Tag: sabotage

Sweden Says No Sabotage In Baltic Sea Cable Damage, Releases Seized Ship (But Russia!)

The mainstream media narrative of Russian ‘shadow fleet’ vessels traversing the Baltic Sea in a clandestine anti-NATO operation to sabotage vital underwater communications cables linking European nations continues to unravel at rapid pace.

Swedish authorities have issued the results of their official investigation into Malta-flagged Vezhen ship, following the discovery of damage to a fiber-optic cable between Sweden and Latvia on Jan. 26. Authorities had immediately seized the cargo ship on suspicion it intentionally damaged the cable.

But in a sudden turn, as of Monday the Vezhen has been released after the investigation found no wrong-doing. It was not the result of sabotage or any intentional plot, investigators now say.

“The investigation concerning a cable break between Sweden and Latvia in the Baltic Sea has clarified that it is not a case of gross sabotage,” Swedish prosecutors said in a new statement.

“It has been established that a combination of weather conditions and deficiencies in equipment and seamanship contributed to the cable break,” Senior Prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist added in the statement.

The consensus is that as the vessel was transporting fertilizer from Ust-Luga, Russia to South America – a ship anchor was damaged and unintentionally dropped into the sea during extremely bad weather, which is when the damage to the cable occurred. The incident is one of several cable incidents in regional waters still being investigated as suspected Russian sabotage.

Now that the ship has resumed its journey to South America, its operator has indicated it may stop for repairs in nearby Denmark.

A statement by ship operator Navigation Maritime Bulgare (Navibulgar) to AFP said Swedish authorities formally notified the crew that “there is no reason to believe that sabotage or malicious act was committed on board by our crew.”

It said the crew members, who had been detained along with the ship, are in good health and that they are resuming the journey. A week ago the company had vehemently denied that this was an act of sabotage, and called on Sweden to quickly release the vessel. 

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NATO, Sweden, Latvia On High Alert After Baltic Undersea Data Cable “Damaged”

The third severing of an undersea cable in just three months occurred on Sunday, this time between Latvia and Sweden in the Baltic Sea. The incident has prompted a criminal investigation and heightened concerns of potential sabotage by Russia or China.

Latvia’s State Radio and Television Center, a data transmission provider, released this statement about the damaged cable connecting Ventspils in Latvia and Sweden’s Gotland island:

In the early morning of January 26, the submarine fiber optic cable of the Latvian State Radio and Television Centre (hereinafter – LVRTC) in the Baltic Sea was damaged. The LVRTC Data Transmission Monitoring System recorded disruptions in data transmission services on the Ventspils – Gotland (Fårösund) section. LVRTC continues to provide services using other data transmission routes. Currently, there is a possible delay in data transmission speed, but it does not affect end users in Latvia for the most part.

Prime Minister Evika Silina commented about the incident on X:

Early morning today we received information that the data cable from Latvia to Sweden was damaged in the Baltic Sea, in the section that is located in the Exclusive economic zone of Sweden. We are working together with our Swedish Allies and NATO on investigating the incident, including to patrolling the area, as well as inspecting the vessels that were in the area. Authorities have intensified information exchange and started criminal investigation.

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It Begins: China Cuts Undersea Internet Cables to Taiwan

In September, a group of journalists (including me) were hosted by Taiwanese national security experts to discuss the developing crisis of Chinese aggression toward Taiwan.

The portion of the week-long visit at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, the Taiwanese Defense and Security Think Tank akin to MITRE, Rand, or The Aerospace Corporation, contained an urgent and compelling message.

“We will be quarantined within six months and the first step of the operation will be China cutting our undersea cables to interrupt our communications with the world” was what Senior research fellows at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taiwan, Drs. Tzu-Yun Su, Shan-son Kung, and Charles C.J. Wang, shared.  Their observations were prescient because that has now happened.

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Finnish Commandos Seize Russia-Linked Ship After Undersea Cable Cut

Finland has seized the ship which is being accused of cutting of an undersea cable connecting electricity to Estonia, allegedly on behalf of Russia, given that the vessel was carrying Russian oil. Finnish authorities and Western officials have described the damage to the Estlink 2 electricity cable as the result of “aggravated criminal mischief”.

EU officials have characterized the incident as part of Russia’s hybrid warfare against NATO, with a European Commission statement describing the cable severing as “the latest in a series of suspected attacks on critical infrastructure.”

The vessel in question was observed traversing the same area where the cable damage occurred near in time to the incident. Four additional telecom cables were disrupted – one linking Finland and Germany and three between Finland and Estonia.

Finland’s coast guard boarded the suspect vessel on Thursday:

Finnish police said in a statement that the coastguard crew boarded an oil tanker in Finnish waters early on Thursday. Authorities named the vessel as the Eagle S, and said it was registered in the Cook Islands in the South Pacific.

When it was detained, the ship was sailing from Russia’s Saint Petersburg to Port Said in Egypt, according to online marine tracking website, MarineTraffic.

According to MarineTraffic, the ship was owned by United Arab Emirates-based vessel management company, Caravella.

The European Commission in its statement additionally accused the Eagle S ship of being part of Russia’s energy sanctions-busting ‘shadow fleet’.

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Scandinavians, the World’s Happiest People, Love Killing for the USA

“If Russia invades—that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine—then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.” President Joe Biden said standing next to the new Social Democrat chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz, at a White House news conference, February 7, 2022.

When pressed for details on how he would keep that promise given that the pipeline is not under U.S. control, Biden stated: “I promise you, we will be able to do it.”

Scholz hedged, saying only that Germany was “acting together” with its allies and promising “very, very harsh” steps against Russia if it invades Ukraine.

Three weeks earlier, Undersecretary Victoria Nuland delivered the same message at a State Department briefing. “If Russia invades Ukraine, one way or another, Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.”

Nuland was Obama and Biden’s point woman for organizing the 2014 fascistic coup in Ukraine. She was caught on tape telling Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, who should run the coup government, as if she were in charge of Ukraine.

The coup took place three weeks later, February 24, 2014, and led to neo-fascist military battalions’ war against ethnic Russians in the Donbas area, and the Crimean secession.

On February 19, Ukraine President Vladimir Zelensky made it clear his country would join NATO and he implied that he wished to have nuclear weapons. That, at least, is how Russia’s government interpreted what he sought when he spoke at the Munich Security Council.

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Six bombs used in Nord Stream sabotage – media

At least six bombs were used to cripple the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines and all four of the gas connector’s lines were mined, German newspaper Die Welt has claimed, citing court papers.

The pipelines, built to deliver Russian gas to Germany and the rest of Western Europe, were destroyed by blasts at the bottom of the Baltic Sea in September 2022.

It was previously believed that the sabotage involved four explosive devices, the outlet noted in an article on Tuesday. However, Die Welt said its journalists had reviewed documents from a court case between Nord Stream AG and insurance companies, which suggest at least six bombs were detonated.

According to the paper, two additional damage sites have recently been found on the pipelines. They had not been noticed before because no gas leaked from the areas, the document alleges.

One of the damage sites was photographed by Swedish engineer Erik Andersen, who has investigated the explosions, the article said. One image reportedly captured traces of a blast on one of the lines of Nord Stream 2.

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Danish military says it’s monitoring Chinese ship closely after undersea cables severed

The Danish military said on Wednesday that it was staying close to a Chinese ship currently sitting idle in Danish waters, days after two fibre-optic data telecommunication cables in the Baltic Sea were severed.

Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 was anchored in the Kattegat strait between Denmark and Sweden on Wednesday, with a Danish navy patrol ship at anchor nearby, MarineTraffic vessel tracking data showed.

“The Danish Defence can confirm that we are present in the area near the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3,” the military said in a post on social media X, adding it had no further comments.

Two critical undersea fibre optic #cables in the #BalticSea—linking Sweden to Lithuania and Finland to Germany—were severed on November 17th and 18th, raising serious security concerns. The Chinese-flagged bulk carrier YI PENG 3 is suspended for its potential involvement.… pic.twitter.com/XRikzko8Pw— MarineTraffic (@MarineTraffic) November 20, 2024

It is quite rare for Denmark’s military to comment publicly on individual vessels travelling in Danish waters. It did not mention the cable breaches or say why it was staying with the ship.

Swedish police later told news agency TT they were also interested in the Yi Peng 3, adding there might be other vessels of interest to Sweden’s investigation.

The Chinese ship left the Russian port of Ust-Luga on Nov.

15 and was in the areas where the cable damages occurred, according to traffic data, which showed other ships to have been in the areas too.

One cable running between Sweden and Lithuania was cut on Sunday and another one between Finland and Germany was severed less than 24 hours later on Monday.

The breaches happened in Sweden’s exclusive economic zone and Swedish prosecutors started a preliminary investigation on Tuesday on suspicion of possible sabotage.

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Germany’s AfD Urges UN to Investigate Nord Stream and Potential Government Role

The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has called on the United Nations to prosecute an inquiry into the Nord Sream pipelines explosions and find out whether government officials were aware of this incident, party’s co-chair Tino Chrupalla said.

“We believe that the incident needs to be thoroughly investigated, and those responsible must be held accountable. In particular, we need to find out if members of the German government were aware of this incident before or after it occurred. We have called for the establishment of an inquiry commission in the European Parliament and are now calling for a UN investigation,” Chrupalla told Turkish newspaper Aydinlik.

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Zero Battlefield Gains Force Ukraine to Send Foreign Mercs on ‘Revenge’ Sabotage Missions – Expert

An attempt by a Ukrainian sabotage team to covertly infiltrate Russia’s Bryansk region was thwarted by Russian border guards, with four enemy saboteurs eliminated. Foreign weapons, equipment, and personal items on the corpses of four saboteurs indicated the presence of foreign mercenaries in the unit.

The lack of any battlefield success has prompted Ukraine and its NATO handlers to resort to expanded use of “revenge” sabotage missions using foreign mercenaries, Joao Claudio Pitillo, historian and researcher at the Center for the Study of the Americas at Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), told Sputnik.

“These mercenaries are recruited, trained, and increasingly directed towards this type of sabotage action that takes the form of revenge… The realization of the impossibility of victory for Ukraine and NATO against Russia prompts expanded use of punitive actions,” he said.

“Such training takes a lot of time and requires experienced personnel. Ukraine likely lacks the manpower to cover both fronts,” Brazilian naval reserve officer and defense consultant Robinson Farinazzo added.

As part of Ukrainian sabotage groups, Western military personnel from elite units, such as the US Rangers, are also engaged in collecting intelligence on enemy routes, weak points, etc., which may subsequently prove useful for “NATO command and future operations on Russian territory,” Farinazzo told Sputnik.

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Sabotage Confirmed At Norwegian Air Base

Norway has revealed that one of its most strategic air bases has been the target of sabotage. The announcement comes as other European NATO air bases — namely in Germany — report incidents, one of which remains unexplained, as well as troubling drone activity over critical infrastructure. These incidents come amid increasing warnings about nefarious Russian activity on the continent, part of an apparent wave of ‘hybrid warfare’ as the conflict in Ukraine further stokes East-West tensions.

Reports emerged today from The Barents Observer that a critical communications cable associated with Evenes Air Station, in northern Norway, had been severed. The incident occurred in April and was reported to the police, but has only now been announced, as state prosecutors investigate what happened.

The precise function of the cable has not been disclosed, but reports describe it as being “part of the air base’s critical infrastructure,” and that it was cut outside the airfield’s perimeter. The Norwegian Police have confirmed that it was severed in a deliberate action but that, so far, no one has been charged, and no suspects have been identified at this point.

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