In the great cold of the Baltic Sea, one of the many fronts of the conflict between the West and Russia is worsening. A serious accident has involved an electrical conduit and four telecommunication cables in the waters surrounding Finland . From the first moment, the authorities in Helsinki have thought of sabotage , the umpteenth in a few months.

Suspicions increased dramatically when, a few hours later, the Coast Guard boarded and escorted to the mainland a vessel flying the Cook Islands flag : one of many that make up Vladimir Putin's so-called 'shadow fleet' , a network of oil tankers with obscure ownership that has long allowed Moscow to circumvent sanctions on crude oil exports.

The first alarm was raised in the late morning of Christmas Day, when the Estlink 2 power cable that carries energy from Finland to Estonia was cut. Less than 24 hours later, authorities detected damage to four more cables, this time telecommunications cables.

Three connect Finland to Estonia, the fourth the Scandinavian country to Germany. The accident did not have consequences for the population, with Finland immediately committing to supplying power to Tallinn from other sources .

Initial investigations have not clarified whether the five cables were damaged by the same hand, but on Wednesday evening the Finnish Coast Guard blocked the tanker Eagle S. The vessel, now stopped near the Porkkalaniemi peninsula, had no anchors and investigators assume that this was the weapon used for sabotage. The hypothesis that the incident was an attack on Europe's critical infrastructure in the space of a handful of hours has become almost a certainty.

" We will react decisively to any interference ," Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo warned at an emergency press conference.

Shortly before, in a joint statement, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Kaja Kallas stressed their "firm condemnation" of any attack on European infrastructure, calling the Russian shadow fleet "a threat" and saying they were ready for new sanctions. The EU's intervention was followed by that of the Atlantic Alliance. In a telephone conversation with Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said he was ready "to provide further support" in the Baltic Sea against any sabotage. The dossier has long been considered a priority by European chancelleries.

(Online Union)

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