Finland released the ship Fitburg suspected of sabotaging the cable 

Finnish police announced on Monday that they had released a ship that they had initially detained on suspicion of sabotaging an undersea telecommunications cable running from Helsinki to Estonia via the Gulf of Finland. However, the investigation is continuing.

Finland detained the cargo ship Fitburg on December 31 on its way from Russia to Israel and detained one crew member as part of the investigation. The ship will leave Finnish territorial waters on Monday.

"The Finnish and Estonian police have completed their work on board the vessel, and the detention will therefore be lifted," said Risto Lohi, head of the investigation at the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, in a statement. He added that some members of the ship's crew remain subject to a travel ban.

The Baltic Sea region is on high alert after a series of outages of power cables, telecommunications links, and gas pipelines since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and NATO has strengthened its military presence with frigates, aircraft, and naval drones.

(reuters, max)