Ship seized in Finland suspected of cable damage was carrying sanctioned Russian steel

Countries in the Baltic Sea region have been on high alert following a string of incidents which saw undersea power cables, telecoms links, and gas pipelines damaged, Report informs via Euronews.

A vessel seized in Finland, suspected of damaging an undersea telecommunications cable between Helsinki and Tallinn, was transporting Russian steel subject to European Union sanctions, Finnish customs officials said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Finnish police detained the Fitburg, a 132-metre-long cargo ship en route from St Petersburg in Russia to the Israeli port of Haifa.

Its 14 crew members were also detained following suspicion that the ship's anchor had damaged the telecoms cable in the Gulf of Finland.

"Preliminary information indicated that the cargo consisted of steel products originating in Russia, which are subject to extensive sanctions imposed on Russia," Finnish Customs said in a statement.

The agency had carried out an inspection of the ship's cargo late on Wednesday.

"According to the assessment of experts at Finnish Customs, the structural steel in question falls under the EU's sectoral sanctions," it said.

"Import of such sanctioned goods into the EU is prohibited under EU sanctions regulations."

Finnish Customs said it was still investigating "the applicability of EU sanctions legislation to this case."

The steel remained impounded pending clarification, it said, and Finnish Customs has opened a preliminary inquiry "with a view to launching a pre-trial investigation into a potential sanctions violation."

Finnish police said on Wednesday they were investigating the damaged cable incident as "aggravated criminal damage, attempted aggravated criminal damage, and aggravated interference with telecommunications."