Investigators believe that the crew of the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3 deliberately dragged its anchor for 160 kilometres to cut cables on the Baltic Sea floor, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
The investigation is now looking into whether the captain of the Chinese ship, which sailed from the Russian port of Ust-Luga on November 15, was induced by Russian intelligence to carry out the sabotage.
A Chinese commercial vessel has been surrounded by European warships in international waters for a week, which has heightened tensions between Beijing and European capitals.
“It’s extremely unlikely that the captain would not have noticed that his ship dropped and dragged its anchor, losing speed for hours and cutting cables on the way,” a senior European investigator involved in the case told the Wall Street Journal.
The ship’s owner, Ningbo Yipeng Shipping, is cooperating with investigators and has allowed the ship to be stopped in international waters, sources told the publication.
The incident took place in Swedish territorial waters on November 17–18, and an investigation has been launched into suspected sabotage. Russia denies responsibility.
Investigators found that the 225 m long and 32 m wide Chinese vessel dropped anchor but did not stop in Swedish waters on November 17 at around 21:00 local time. The dragged anchor severed the first cable between Sweden and Lithuania shortly afterwards, sources familiar with the investigation said.
At the time, the ship’s transponder, which records its movements on the so-called Automatic Identification System, was switched off in what is known as a “dark incident” in marine traffic jargon. The ship continued to sail even though the anchor dropped its speed significantly, according to satellite and other data collected by investigators.
According to the investigators, Yi Peng 3 severed the second cable linking Germany and Finland the next day at around 3:00 after travelling about 178 kilometres. Shortly afterwards, the ship started zigzagging, raised anchor, and continued.
Danish Navy ships then set out to pursue and intercept Yi Peng 3, ultimately forcing it to anchor in the Kattegat Strait, which connects the Baltic and the North Seas.
“Given the mild weather conditions and manageable wave heights, the likelihood of accidental anchor dragging appears minimal,” Kpler, an analytics company that provides real-time data on international shipping, told The Wall Street Journal.
The crew of the ship, which includes a Russian national, has not yet been interviewed. Several Western intelligence and other officials have said they do not believe the Chinese government was involved in the incident but that Russian intelligence is suspected of being behind the sabotage.
A joint investigation group has been set up by Lithuania, Finland, and Sweden to carry out an investigation into the cable break in the Baltic Sea, which will be supervised and coordinated by Eurojust.
On November 18, Telia Lietuva, the Swedish telecoms company’s Lithuanian arm, reported that one of the three Baltic Sea communication cables between Sweden and Lithuania was damaged on November 17, which was later confirmed by officials in Stockholm.
On the same day, Finnish operator Cinia reported that a cable linking Helsinki and the German port of Rostock had been severed for unknown reasons.
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