The captain of the Chinese ship suspected of damaging cables in the Baltic Sea is a Russian national.

The captain of the Chinese cargo ship Yi Peng 3, which is suspected of damaging underwater cables in the Baltic Sea, turned out to be a citizen of Russia.

Source. This was reported by Bild citing sources in the security services.

The Chinese vessel caught the attention of Danish military due to its unusual route, Bild writes. The fact that the captain of Yi Peng 3 is Russian became known only after the cargo ship was stopped, the publication notes. Other details of the detention have not yet been disclosed.

The federal police of Germany has joined the investigation into the incidents, cooperating with Finland and Sweden. A German Coast Guard ship has been dispatched to the scene to examine the circumstances.

According to preliminary data, the damage to the cables could have been caused either by a dropped anchor or the use of a bottom trawl, Bild reports.

The Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat previously reported that the ship Yi Peng 3 was in Danish waters under the escort of a patrol vessel, and its route passed near the C-Lion1 cable at the time reports of its damage emerged.

The breakage of the C-Lion1 cable became known on November 18. According to the Finnish operator Cinia Oy, the cause was “external influence,” while the possibility of deliberate damage cannot be ruled out.

The C-Lion1 cable, which was commissioned in 2016, is 1173 km long and connects the Finnish town of Santahamina with the German city of Rostock. It is a key communication channel between Finland and Central Europe. Services on the cable have been temporarily suspended, and repair work is expected to be completed within 15 days.

Later, it was discovered that another underwater cable connecting Lithuania and Sweden was also damaged on November 17. According to Andrius Shemeškėvičius, the technical director of the Lithuanian operator Telia, this led to a one-third reduction in internet speed in Lithuania. Both cables – C-Lion1 and the Lithuanian-Swedish cable – intersect in an area of just 10 square meters, Shemeškėvičius noted:

“Since both were broken, it is clear that there was no accidental dropping of an anchor from one ship, and it may concern something more serious.”

Background. It is worth noting that European authorities suspect that the cables in the Baltic Sea were damaged by Russia.