Old tankers are damaging crucial subsea cables using their anchors. Analysts say it's likely deliberate.

On Christmas Day, authorities in Estonia and Finland noted the sudden interruption of the Estlink 2 undersea electricity cable linking their two nations - just as ship tracking data showed the Cook Islands-registered "Eagle S" passing outbound from Russia’s Baltic coast en route to Egypt.

and flagged in places like Gabon or the Cook Islands. Some of the vessels are owned by the Russian state Sovcomflot shipping company. Their role is to help Russia’s oil exporters elude the $60 per barrel price cap imposed by Ukraine’s allies.

In total, the United States is sanctioning 183 oil-carrying vessels, Russian oil traders and oilfield providers, the two Russian oil majors and more than two dozen of their subsidiaries, according to the Treasury Department.

Finland’s President Alexander Stubb said there’s no conclusion yet on whether recent repeated damage to undersea cables in the Baltic Sea was sabotage.

A Russian spy ship seen in U.K. waters points to continuing worries over the safety of undersea cables that link the global economy.

Ukrainian officials welcomed Donald Trump ’s threat to sanction Russia harder, suggesting punitive measures against Russian oil and gas could run down Vladimir Putin ’s war machinery. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb stressed that such incidents are "not in the interest of Russia or anyone else"

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The investigators have turned up no indication that commercial ships deliberately dragged anchors in the area where the submarine cables lay on Moscow’s instructions, the officials noted

Russia is believed to be behind dozens of hybrid attacks, like arson or sabotage, on NATO soil since the Ukraine war started.

An alleged Russian "shadow fleet" tanker suspected of damaging Baltic Sea cables in December will not face a separate investigation that its cargo violating sanctions imposed on Russian oil, Finnish customs said Thursday.