Almost a month ago, the Yi Peng 3 was halted by the Danish navy. The ship was the main suspect for either an accident or purposely aimed sabotage of two vital communication cables underneath the Baltic Sea. Weeks later, the Chinese bulk carrier is still going nowhere, with Baltic Sea navy vessels still at its sides.
Sunday morning 15 December 2024 the Yi Peng 3 is still lying idle in the Kattegat strait between Grenaa in Denmark (24 nautical miles (44 km) away) and Torekov in Sweden (32 nm/60 km away), judging the live feed from Vesselfinder.com. The Yi Peng 3 was flanked by German Coast Guard patrol boat PB84 Neustadt, and Danish Navy patrol vessel P525 Rota this Sunday morning.
Preliminary investigation by four countries
Until a week ago, the Swedish coast guard also took part in the rotation of guard duties. The Swedish police and public prosecutor are running a preliminary investigation into the Yi Peng 3, as are the authorities in Germany, Finland and Lithuania.
Subsea communication cables damaged
On 17 and 18 November this year, the vital subsea fibre-optic cables were damaged within 24 hours. Firstly, the BCS East-West Interlink between Sweden and Lithuania was cut near the strategic Swedish Baltic Sea island of Gotland. Secondly, the C-Lion 1 cable between Finland and Germany was cut about 60 to 70 kilometres (32-37 nautical miles) southeast of the Swedish island of Öland. In both occasions, the Yi Peng 3 was at or near the cables. It left the Russian port of Ust-Luga on 15 November, setting course to the Atlantic Ocean.
After the loss of communications through the cables, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius was quick in telling reporters “Nobody believes that these cables were severed by accident.” But whether this statement holds, remains to be seen, as none of the investigation have come to a conclusion yet. Swedish authorities confirmed on 10 December that the damaged fibre-optic cables have been repaired.
Russia accused of sabotage operations
Cables breaks happen regularly often, but with Russia accused by a dozen NATO countries of executing sabotage operations in other parts of Europe, a broken cable in the Baltic Sea area quickly get geopolitical ramifications. In 2023 a gas pipeline was cut by another Chinese merchant ship. And on 3 December, the Swedish Civil Defence Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin immediately called the cutting of two fibre-optic cables with Finland an “act of sabotage”. But after a brief investigation, Finnish confirmed the same day that an excavator accidentally cut the cables during planned ground works. | © 2024 Marcel Burger, nordicreporter.com. Featured photo: Danish Navy patrol boat P520 Diana, sister ship of the P525 Rota spotted near the Yi Peng 3 on Sunday 15 December 2024 (Press photo: Forsvaret)