European investigators have a suspect—and now the world has more details. The Wall Street Journal has the latest on the Yi Peng 3 bulk carrier, a Chinese commercial ship that is suspected of severing two fiber-optic cables in the Baltic Sea. The vessel has been flanked by European warships for the last week, and the Journal reports the ship's owner has been cooperating and permitted the vessel to be stopped, though access to it has not been granted. The central questions investigators are zooming in on is whether the captain of the ship, which left the Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga on Nov. 15, cut the cables intentionally, and whether he did so on behalf of Russian intelligence. The crew reportedly has yet to be questioned.
Investigators say they have confirmed that the ship dropped anchor on the evening of Nov. 17 but continued sailing; a cable between Sweden and Lithuania was severed a short time later, and some six hours and 111 miles after dropping anchor, they say a cable between Germany and Finland was cut. It raised its anchor a short time later. "It's extremely unlikely that the captain would not have noticed that his ship dropped and dragged its anchor, losing speed for hours," said one European investigator. The New York Times, however, reports this, without much elaboration: "American intelligence officials had assessed that the cables were not cut deliberately."
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson sounded a note of caution as well, telling the Guardian on Wednesday, "We are careful about not accusing anybody right now of anything. We don't know that this is sabotage. But we are investigating the matter very carefully." The Swedish prosecutor on Wednesday said the crime scene investigations of the two damaged cables had been completed, and that analysis of what was collected was ongoing. The Times cites the superintendent of the Swedish police as saying Wednesday, "The current classification of the crime is sabotage, though this may change."
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An interesting side note: The Journal reports the Yi Peng 3 did not leave Chinese waters between December 2019 and March 2024, at which point it made an abrupt change, per Benjamin L. Schmitt, senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Kleinman Center for Energy Policy. The Chinese ship began carrying Russian cargo and sailing to Russian ports like Nakhodka on the Sea of Japan and the Port of Murmansk in the Barents Sea. The ship is said to be currently carrying Russian fertilizers. "While this alone is not enough to provide evidence of Russian involvement, the fundamental change in the ship's operating region ... should be a key area of investigation for European authorities," Schmitt said. (More Baltic Sea stories.)
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