The freighter “Yi Peng 3” has stopped and the Danish Navy is in the immediate vicinity. The ship is suspected of having damaged internet cables in the Baltic Sea.
For many hours, various ships from the Danish Navy followed the Chinese freighter “Yi Peng 3” through the Great Belt between Funen and Zealand. Now a patrol boat has apparently stranded the 225-meter-long ship north of Zealand.
The ship is suspected of being responsible for damaging internet cables in the Baltic Sea. It had set off from Ust-Luga in Russia a few days ago and had specified the Egyptian Port Said as its destination port.
German authorities are in contact with Danish, Swedish and Finnish authorities, but did not want to comment on the alleged role of the “Yi Peng 3” when asked by t-online. The Federal Ministry of Defense assumes sabotage. The Federal Ministry of the Interior referred to the investigations in Finland and Sweden.
As early as Tuesday morning, experts who monitor the Baltic Sea region based on publicly available data pointed out the possible role of the “Yi Peng 3” in the alleged sabotage on the Internet short message service Bluesky. As early as October 2023, when the Balticconnector gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was damaged, they correctly identified the Chinese freighter “Newnew Polar Bear” as the culprit.
Now the users “Gary Gnutter”, “Pekka Lund” and ”auonsson” have come to the conclusion that the “Yi Peng 3″ was at the time when the damage to the C-Lion1 and BCS East-West Interlink internet cables occurred on Sunday and Monday, the cables were run over in the places in question. The ship lost speed and made noticeable changes in course.
Apparently the authorities are now coming to a similar conclusion: “The Swedes are taking a close look at this Chinese ship,” the “Financial Times” quoted an unnamed source who is said to be familiar with the Swedish investigation on Tuesday evening. When asked by t-online, a spokesman for the Federal Police said that they were not involved with the ship.
On Tuesday evening, according to the public ship database ”Vesselfinder”, the “Yi Peng 3” came to a standstill at around 8 p.m. north of the Danish island of Zealand. Shortly before 9 p.m. it was only moving in Danish waters at a speed of less than 1 knot. According to the data, a few hundred meters later it stopped in international waters. “Vesselfinder” then showed its status as “anchored”.
The Danish Navy patrol boat “P525”, which had been shadowing the freighter for hours, was at some distance and now seemed to be slowly circling the “Yi Peng 3”. Another Danish Navy ship, the “HDMS Søløven”, had set course for the spot and reached it shortly after 11 p.m., where it dropped anchor. The “HDMS Søløven” is intended to support divers, for example when clearing mines or ammunition. The ”P525″ then left, but returned to the two anchored ships in the morning, whereupon the “HDMS Søløven” set course to the south.
The Danish patrol ship “HDMS Hvidbjørnen” also set course for the spot during the night, but ultimately switched off its position data shortly before reaching the position. On Wednesday afternoon its position was visible again, and it was northeast of Skagen in Denmark. The Danish Ministry of Defense has not yet responded to a request from t-online. On Wednesday
the armed forces only admitted to being on site in the short message service “X”.