Chinese-registered ship is held in Baltic Sea sabotage investigation
Summary
- Incident has triggered a multinational probe, and some officials say they suspect Russia’s involvement
A Chinese ship that sailed over two severed data cables in the Baltic Sea around the time they were cut has been stopped by the Danish navy as part of an international investigation into what police say is a possible act of sabotage.
The two fiber-optic data cables—one that connected Denmark and Lithuania, the other Finland and Germany—were severed in quick succession on Sunday and Monday, causing minor disturbances in internet traffic and triggering a multinational manhunt involving investigators in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Germany, according to several officials.
Detaining a foreign vessel without a warrant is unusual. However, a rarely used article in a centuries-old convention could give the Danes the legal authority to detain the Yi Peng 3, said Kenneth Øhlenschlæger Buhl, a military analyst and expert on maritime law with the Royal Danish Defense College.
Some say the aggressive move by the Danish navy signals a change in policy: In similar situations, North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies—who otherwise stand for upholding freedom of navigation across the globe—have stopped short of detaining merchant ships. Western allies have been sending warships to the South China Sea to secure commercial shipping lanes and counter what they claim is China’s aggressive posture on the region.
Several officials familiar with the investigation said that Russia is suspected to be behind the sabotage, and that its operatives could have used the Chinese-registered ship to provide plausible deniability. Two officials said it was unlikely that the Chinese government was aware of the plot
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday denied Russia’s involvement, saying it was “quite absurd" to point the finger at Russia in the absence of evidence.
Late Tuesday, the Chinese vessel stopped moving after its path was blocked by two Danish Naval vessels, the HDMS Søløven frigate and a smaller patrol vessel, after it entered the Kattegat Strait that separates Danish and Swedish waters, according to the Marine Traffic website that tracks vessels. It doesn’t appear to have moved since. The Danish defense ministry confirmed that its vessels were in the area but declined to comment further.
The Swedish state prosecutor, Henrik Söderman, said he had launched a preliminary investigation into the incident, which was currently classified as sabotage. Swedish police said they were investigating the cable incident in cooperation with the Swedish Security Service (SÄPO), the Swedish Prosecution Authority, the Swedish Armed Forces and the Coast Guard.
“We are ready to take investigative measures to get a clearer picture of what may have happened, such as interrogating the crew," Per Engström, a police officer with the National Operations Department, said in a statement.
German police dispatched patrol ships to investigate the incident involving the cable that landed on its coast, according to German officials.
The development resembles a similar incident from October last year, when a Chinese-flagged ship called Newnew Polar Bear cut a gas pipeline and a data cable with its anchor, and then proceeded on its route to Russia’s Arctic coast. At the time, the Chinese vessel, which carried a Russian crew, was followed but not stopped by NATO ships.
Chinese authorities collaborated with western counterparts in the Newnew Polar Bear investigation, according to three western officials.
The Yi Peng 3 left the Russian Baltic port of UST Luga on Nov. 15 after loading at the Ultramar terminal, which specializes in sending mineral fertilizers and iron products to international products, according to data-commodities provider Kpler.
It then entered the straits on Tuesday, according to Marine Traffic. As it approached the Danish straits that separate Denmark’s Jutland peninsula and the island of Zealand early Tuesday, it was chased by two Danish Navy vessels. One of them, the HDMS Niels Juel, briefly stood in its way, forcing it to change course westward, Marine Traffic data shows. The vessel then sent a radio message saying it was “constrained by draught," meaning it was unable to change course due to the depth and width of the navigable water in relation to its draft.
Yörük Işık, who runs the Bosporus Observer, a consulting firm analyzing maritime activity, said he then witnessed the Yi Peng 3 crossing the Danish straits tailed by yet another military vessel, the HDMS Hvidbjørnen, at 1200 local time Tuesday.
The Yi Peng 3 is owned by Chinese company Ningbo Yipeng Shipping, according to the European Union database. The vessel was last inspected in Turkey in June when it delivered coal from the Russian port of Murmansk to Iskenderun in Turkey under a chartering contract from U.S. commodities giant Bunge SA, according to Equasis and commodities data company Kpler.
Since the launch of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has been accused by Western officials of waging a shadow war on European soil. They allege Russia was behind a plot to place incendiary devices on airplanes, instigated arson attacks in the U.K. and the Czech Republic, and ordered sabotage operations on military and industrial installations in Germany.
It is also accused of orchestrating attacks on pipelines and data cables in the Baltic and the Arctic, and tampering with water supplies in Sweden and Finland.
The Kremlin’s spy services are on a “sustained mission to generate mayhem" on Europe’s streets, warned Ken McCallum, the head of U.K. domestic spy agency MI5, in October.
Some western intelligence officials say that the growing campaign of sabotage and vandalism in Europe could be unfolding without direct orders from the Kremlin, which has only given broad orders to create panic and insecurity in the West following its support for Ukraine.
According to Article 10 of the 1884 International Convention for the Protection of Submarine Telegraph Cables, a military vessel may require the captain of a nonmilitary vessel suspected of breaching the convention to provide evidence of the nationality of the vessel.
The only previous publicly reported use of the article was in 1959 when personnel of the U.S.S. Roy O. Hale boarded a Soviet trawler suspected of breaking several submarine cables, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Previous sabotage incidents that went unpunished have likely prompted the Danes to prepare, legally and logistically, to intervene in similar scenarios, Buhl, the military analyst, said. The incidents the 2021 disappearance of an underwater monitoring cable off the North Norwegian coast that coincided with mysterious movements of a fishing trawler, the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline explosions, or last year’s pipeline and cable incident involving the Chinese ship Newnew Polar Bear.
“There is undoubtedly a need, this time, to try to find a smoking gun," he said.
Write to Bojan Pancevski at bojan.pancevski@wsj.com, Sune Engel Rasmussen at sune.rasmussen@wsj.com and Benoit Faucon at benoit.faucon@wsj.com
