Key facts
- Finnish authorities conducted a live drill simulating ship boardings in the Baltic Sea on Thursday.
- The exercise aimed to demonstrate readiness against undersea sabotage threats.
- Recent incidents in the Baltic Sea region include ruptures of power cables, telecom lines, and gas pipelines.
- Officials are preparing for sabotage by divers, mini-submarines, or diving robots carrying explosives.
- Finland is seeking new powers for its Border Guard to stop and inspect suspicious vessels and unmanned underwater vehicles.
Finnish authorities conducted a live drill on Thursday in the Baltic Sea, simulating ship boardings to counter the threat of undersea sabotage. The exercise, involving masked officers from the coast guard, police, and armed forces, underscores the region's heightened concerns about critical infrastructure security following a series of incidents since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Coast Guard Commander Ilja Iljin stated that the drill reflects what Helsinki considers "the new normal," given several recent damaging incidents to underwater infrastructure in the Baltic Sea. He noted that signs of a ship's involvement in cable damage can include abrupt changes in speed or course over undersea lines. Finland has reportedly sharpened its response to such incidents, with the most recent suspect vessel being controlled within hours, compared to an earlier one that sailed away before authorities could act.