It says that according to the data of the ship traffic tracking website “MarineTraffic”, the vessel “Xin Xin Tian 2” with the Hong Kong flag was near the cable at 12:26 p.m., when the emergency disconnection of the cable took place.
According to Marine Traffic, the Xin Xin Tian 2 left St. Petersburg, Russia on Tuesday and is en route to Port Said, Egypt.
It has already been reported that two other Chinese ships have recently been linked to damage to underwater communications in the Baltic Sea.
Last year, the “Balticconnector” gas pipeline connecting Estonia and Finland was damaged in the Baltic Sea. The investigation revealed that the damage was caused by the Hong Kong-registered container ship “NewNew Polar Bear”, whose anchor was pulled over the pipeline at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
This year, in November, the data cable “C-Lion 1” connecting Finland and Germany and the telecommunications cable “Arelion” connecting Sweden and Lithuania were damaged. The Chinese cargo ship “Yi Peng 3” is suspected of damaging these cables with an anchor.
Both “NewNew Polar Bear” and “Yi Peng 3” left the Russian port before the cables were damaged.
It has already been reported that the emergency disconnection of the “EstLink 2” cable took place on Wednesday.
The cause of the shutdown is not yet known. “Elering” and “Fingrid”, the operators of the Estonian and Finnish electricity transmission networks, are trying to find out the reason for the interruption of the “EstLink 2” operation, “Elering” announced.
“EstLink 2” disconnection will not affect the security of the electricity supply, as reserve capacities will be used, according to “Elering”.
The power of “Estlink 2” is 650 megawatts. The Estonian-Finnish electrical cable “EstLink 1” continues to operate, with a capacity of 350 megawatts.
It has already been reported that “EstLink 2” did not work from January to August this year due to damage. This damage was not caused by an intentional external impact.