Danish Navy boards Chinese ship suspected in European undersea cable sabotage — Sweden’s Defense Ministry put freighter at the time and place of the disruption

Update 11/20 03:38 PT:

According to reports in EurAsia Daily and Defence24, the Danish Navy has boarded and detained the Chinese Bulk Carrier Yi Peng 3 in the Danish Straits, near to the exit of the Great Belt. the detention took place on the evening of November 18. According to Financial Times sources, Sweden are “carefully studying the Chinese vessel.”

Original Article

Denmark has sent two of its ships, the HDMS Hvidbjoernen, an ocean patrol frigate, and the DNK Navy Patrol P525, a smaller patrol craft, to shadow the Chinese Bulk Carrier Yi Peng 3. The Chinese vessel is suspected to be connected with the cutting of two undersea internet cables that connect Finland and Sweden to Central Europe, reports MSN.

The undersea cable connecting Sweden to Lithuania was the first to be hit, sustaining damage around Sunday, November 17, 2024. The Finland-Germany undersea cable was then cut the following day. On Tuesday, the Sweden Ministry of Civil Defense announced that it recorded the ship’s movements and placed the Yi Peng 3 within the vicinity of the possible sabotage events.

According to public records, the bulk carrier left Ust-Luga Anchorage, some 50 miles east of St. Petersburg, Russia, last November 15, and that its next destination is Port Said of Egypt. We don’t have any information on her crew or what type of cargo she’s carrying, though.

At the time of writing, Marinetraffic.com puts the Chinese ship in the middle of the Kattegatt, the sea bound by Denmark on the west and Sweden in the east. The smaller Danish patrol ship is immediately beside it, while the Hvidbjoernen is located some 15 to 20 miles southwest of the two vessels (although the website says that this position was last updated more than seven hours ago).

Sweden says that it has already dispatched units to the scene of the cut undersea cables to examine the damage and that its police are already investigating the incident. The action of the Danish ships is likely part of a coordinated effort to determine the how and why the undersea cables were cut, especially as the authorities are crying sabotage.

This comes just a few months after NATO said that Russia was mapping undersea fiber optic cables as part of its strategy to disrupt communications. While the involved ship is Chinese flagged, the two countries are, if not exactly allies, at least friendly on friendly terms.

The events in the Baltic Sea regarding the suspected sabotage of the undersea cables are currently developing, but we hope that this does not turn into a wider conflict. After all, undersea communications cable goes beyond just providing internet to the general people; it could also carry crucial military and government messaging. This is especially important for Finland, which shares a border with Russia, and Lithuania, which is located north of Belarus — the same country from which Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.