Germany calls for new sanctions on Russia’s dark fleet that is ‘damaging major undersea cables’ nearly every month

• Germany’s foreign minister urged new European Union sanctions on Russia’s dark fleet.
• As part of a probe into a cut cable, Finland said last week it detained a ship that may be from the dark fleet.
• The case is being investigated as “aggravated criminal mischief,” Finnish police said.

Germany’s foreign minister has called for further sanctions against Russia’s dark fleet of oil tankers following damage to an underwater cable linking Finland and Estonia last week.

“Ships are damaging major undersea cables in the Baltic Sea almost every month,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told the Funke media group.

“Crews are leaving anchors in the water, dragging them for kilometers along the seafloor for no apparent reason, and then losing them when pulling them up,” Baerbock said, per an AFP translation.

“It’s more than difficult to still believe in coincidences. This is an urgent wake-up call for all of us,” she added.

Baerbock urged new European Union sanctions against Russia’s dark — or shadow — fleet of oil tankers that transport sanctioned Russian oil and energy products.

The EU has also sanctioned 79 vessels from Russia’s shadow fleet. These ships are banned from accessing EU ports and services.

Many of these vessels are aging, operating under opaque ownership, and sailing without adequate insurance coverage. They pose environmental and financial risks to coastal countries. A heavy storm earlier this month caused two tankers to spill thousands of tons of low-grade fuel oil into the Kerch Strait, between the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula and Russia.

Baerbock’s comments came after Finnish authorities detained the Eagle S oil tanker on Thursday as part of an investigation into the cutting of an undersea cable in the Baltic Sea. The cable transmits electricity from Finland to Estonia.

The case is being investigated as “aggravated criminal mischief,” Finnish police said in a press release.

Finnish customs authorities and the European Union’s executive commission said the tanker might be part of Russia’s dark fleet of tankers.

The Kremlin declined to comment on Finland’s seizure of the oil tanker on Friday.

“I cannot say anything for sure, for this is a highly specialized issue that the presidential administration is hardly in a position to comment on,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in response to a question on the Finnish move.

On Friday, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on X that he had spoken to the Finnish president about the investigation into the “possible sabotage of undersea cables.”

“#NATO will enhance its military presence in the Baltic Sea,” Rutte added.