What would winter holidays be without a ship from Russia damaging a comms cable? Huh!
Small cargo ship FITBURG (Russia to Israel) was helo-boarded by Finnish authorities after being found with anchor chain in water and suspected of damaging an Elisa-cable.
Cable break in the GoF, thread:
Vessel under suspicion is FITBURG (IMO: 9250397) under St Vincent Grenadines flag. It is a small cargo ship.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they already are operating there.
En svensk tiger! 🇸🇪🐅
Påminnelse.
Där sker troligen mer militär aktivitet än vanligt i Sverige just nu.
Så länge det inte kommuniceras öppet ska varken jag eller ni berätta om det. Inga tips tack.
Tipsa däremot gärna försvaret :
www.forsvarsmakten.se/sv/informati...
I’m hopeful that the Swedish bureaucracy shows its full capacity in this case.
Don't normally repost Reuters, but this is interesting. Russian 'gun runner' Adler has been anchored off the Swedish coast for a little bit...
Unless there’s a warship between them and international waters. Then the stakes may be too high even for them. But this is of course speculative
Russian weapons transport ship ADLER was boarded during night by SE special forces (police, NI) in concert with security services, customs, coast guard and prosecutor.
Ship claims engine breakdown and is anchored at one of Baltic Sea's main entry points.
(Archive pic)
Yes, but perhaps not right now, when Swedish coast guard is also flying there
It’s probably common knowledge, but it is noteworthy that ADLER is a sanctioned ship. www.opensanctions.org/entities/NK-...
Swedish coast guard is on site right now (in the sky)
Russian logistics ship ADLER is at anchor IN Sweden.
Possibly broken down. Usually runs heavy weapons to Russian bases in Africa / Middle East.
Was inspected by military aircraft 2h ago. Swedish Coast Guard just arrived to area.
"Runctitiononal features"? "Medical fymblal"? "1 Tol Line storee"? This gets worse the longer you look at it. But it's got to be good, because it was published in Nature Scientific Reports last week: www.nature.com/articles/s41... h/t @asa.tsbalans.se
Is there any recent update of that graph? Asking for a friend.
Starlink in Ukraine operates based on paid contracts. If it’s being used as an extortion tool, then other countries should consider it a potential security risk - just like Russian gas used for blackmailing. If Ukraine is cut off, it would be wise for Europe to reconsider its use
There is a new broken submarine cable close to Gotland, with Swedish Navy and Coast Guard en route, according to public service news.
Will try and get more info in a while.
Breaking.
The convenience of stopping by Denmark for supplies and rest is over for the Russian shadow fleet.
Tankers anchored will be subject to Port State Control and ultimately risk detention on safety grounds.
Expert except this might also risk exposing the ships to sanctions investigations.
Lets not forget other possibilities. PSKOV.
bsky.app/profile/pekk...
Meanwhile, as most eyes are on Vezhen (now near Karlskrona), PSKOV as another suspect (AIS was off while it went over the cable) is being escorted by 3 military ships from Finland and Estonia.
A typical Swedish response would be to bring her to a harbour where there will be a investigation. It’s a serious matter, so it must be done very thoroughly before the legal process starts. It may take years or even decades.
Swedish KBV 033 has just intercepted VEZHEN, which @auonsson.bsky.social considered the most likely candidate. You can watch this live on Marinetraffic.
🇷🇺Med Sea Flotilla🇷🇺
Sentinel 2📷 from 14 Jan 2025 provides a nice view of the current state of affairs
Sparta & Sparta II continue their holding patterns SW of the port
Adm. Grigorovich remains NW of the port within territorial waters with 2x small vessels moving to/from port
Unless you start boarding operations, this is window dressing.
Warships sat watching merchant vessels dragging anchors whilst CLEARLY under command, is going to deter nobody.
‼️ Russia: “Plane with Russian hockey team makes emergency landing in Ufa”
I can’t believe I didn’t have a prediction about Russian Hockey teams and planes. I can only apologize.
www.mk.ru/social/2025/...
Shadow tanker JAZZ, who likely broke down three times last two weeks, is now anchored in Danish waters.
If one reads UNCLOS as closely as one did when YI PENG 3 was let go it is hard to not read it as an obligation or at least an opportunity for Denmark to do a port state control.
