The government will hold an emergency meeting at 4 p.m. and a press conference at 6 p.m.

The damage of EstLink 2 and the protection of undersea infrastructure will be discussed.

The live broadcast of the press conference in English can be watched below.

The EstLink 2 cable runs between Estonia and Finland under the Gulf of Finland.

The outage was reported at 12:26 p.m. on Christmas Day (December 25) by electricity transmission system operators Elering and Fingrid.

On Thursday (December 26), the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation said the Russian shadow fleet's oil tanker Eagle S – sailing under a Cook Islands flag – likely caused the damage.

The ship has been detained in Finnish waters and is missing an anchor. A three-kilometer no-fly zone has been imposed in the area.

The agency said an inquiry is ongoing, but the damage to EstLink 2 is being investigated as aggravated vandalism.

The oil tanker was, according to MarineTraffic, on its way from St Petersburg to Egypt, Finland's public broadcaster Yle reported.

Several other cables connecting Finland to Estonia and Germany are also reportedly out of action on Thursday.

EstLink 2 is the latest cable to be damaged in the Baltic Sea by vessels suspected to be linked to China or Russia.

In October 2023, a gas pipeline connecting Estonia and Finland was broken by a Hong Kong-flagged ship's anchor.

The latest damage comes after 12 countries agreed to place additional restrictions on Russia's shadow fleet, again vessels used to carry oil.

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