Finland releases ship held over suspected undersea cable sabotage

Finnish police said on Monday they had lifted the seizure of a ship which had been held on suspicion of sabotaging an undersea telecoms cable running from Helsinki to Estonia across the Gulf of Finland, although the investigation continues.

The Baltic Sea region is on high alert after a string of power cable, telecom link and gas pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. NATO has boosted its military presence with frigates, aircraft and naval drones.

Finland seized the Fitburg cargo ship on December 31 while en route from Russia to Israel, and detained one crew member as part of the investigation. The ship will leave Finland's territorial waters on Monday, police said in a statement.