German foreign minister warns of Russian 'shadow fleet'

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has issued a warning about the "decrepit Russian shadow fleet" of ships after recent damage to undersea cables in Europe.

"Almost every month, ships are currently damaging important undersea cables in the Baltic Sea," Baerbock told the German Funke group of newspapers on Saturday.

"Ship crews lower anchors into the water, drag them for kilometers across the seabed for no apparent reason and then lose them when they pull them up."

Baerbock said it was unlikely that multiple incidents occurring in recent months was a coincidence.

"This is an urgent wake-up call for all of us. In a digitalized world, undersea cables are the communication arteries that hold our world together," she said.

She called for tougher sanctions against Russia and greater investment in national security.

EU takes aim at Russia's 'shadow fleet'

On Wednesday, the Estlink 2 undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia was damaged.

Finnish authorities believe the incident may have been an act of sabotage and detained the Cook Islands-flagged oil tanker Eagle S, a ship that the EU believes could belong to the so-called Russian "shadow fleet."

The "shadow fleet" refers to ships that are used by Russia to circumvent sanctions, for example to sell oil.

"It is used by Russia to finance its illegal war of aggression in Ukraine," Baerbock said.

She added that more than 50 such ships were subject to EU sanctions as of mid-December.

In a separate incident in November, two fiber-optic cables in the Baltic Sea were severed. Swedish authorities boarded a Chinese ship as part of an investigation into potential sabotage.

zc/wd (dpa, AFP)