
The captain and a crew member of the ship Fitburg were convicted by a Helsinki court for damaging telecommunications infrastructure.
A Finnish court sentenced the captain and a crew member of the cargo ship Fitburg to prison terms for sabotaging two submarine cables in the Baltic Sea on December 31, 2025.
AI-generated summary
Tensions in the Baltic Sea have increased since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Similar incidents involving the Eagle S tanker took place in late 2024.
A Finnish court on Thursday, November 5, sentenced to prison the captain of a ship and a member of his crew, for the sabotage of two submarine cables in the Baltic Sea linking Finland to Estonia on December 31, 2025. The captain of the Fitburg, a Russian, was sentenced to three years and six months in prison and the boatswain, a citizen of Azerbaijan, to two years and ten months by the Helsinki court.
Two cables were damaged
They had been on trial since September 8 for "aggravated damage" and "aggravated obstruction of telecommunications", suspected of having left the ship's anchor dragging for at least 130 kilometers on the seabed in the Gulf of Finland, damaging two cables and attempting to damage eight others. A representative from the Russian embassy was present in court to follow the trial, according to Finnish media.
En route to Israel from Russia, their cargo ship, registered in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, was stopped on December 31, 2025 by the coast guard. In 2025, three crew members of the Cook Islands-flagged tanker Eagle S were tried for similar charges after damaging five submarine cables in the Gulf of Finland on December 25, 2024.
The Helsinki District Court dismissed Finland's case, ruling that it was up to the ship's flag state or the defendants' countries of origin to decide the case. Finnish prosecutors appealed the decision, with Finland claiming jurisdiction due to the consequences of the incident for the country. Tensions in the Baltic Sea have escalated since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Many experts and political leaders view these incidents as possible hybrid acts by Russia.
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