Russia announced ahead of time that their repair ship was arriving in Finland's EEZ to repair a cable belonging to them, officer Matti Niittymäki from the Finnish Coast Guard's central command told daily Helsingin Sanomat (link in Finnish).

"We do not have information on when the cable broke," he added. "Repairs began today."

The Coast Guard is monitoring the Russian vessel.

"Repairs are a permitted activity," Niittymäki explained. "Cables and gas pipelines sometimes break even within Finland's EEZ, and the country owning the cable applies for the necessary permits for repairs."

The officer did not specify which cable was damaged or what might have caused the damage.

Kari Klemm, preparedness chief at the Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, later confirmed that two telecommunications cables connecting St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad were damaged in the Finnish EEZ.

The ministry was notified of the damage on December 26 of last year already, he added.

Suomenlahden merivartiosto valvoo talousvyöhykelain ja talousvyöhykkeen hyödyntämisen ehtojen toteutumista Suomenlahdella, jossa on käynnissä rikkoontuneen venäläisen kaapelin korjaustyö venäläisen aluksen toimesta. pic.twitter.com/ss2k0boq1H

— Merivartiosto - SLMV (@Merivartiosto) February 8, 2025--

One day prior, on Christmas Day, the Cook Islands-flagged tanker Eagle S had damaged the Estonian-Finnish undersea power link Estlink 2. National Bureau of Investigation (KRP) chief Risto Lohi declined to comment on whether the Eagle S had also damaged the Russian cable in question.

Ilja Iljin, deputy commander of the Gulf of Finland Coast Guard District, stated that the Coast Guard is on site monitoring the cable repair work, adding that their vessel Turva is among the vessels present at the scene. "Enough personnel has been allocated," he added.

According to the deputy commander, nothing out of the ordinary has been observed at the site. "There is a lot of infrastructure on the seabed, and cable owners sometimes need to repair [their cables]," he noted.

Cable repairs will likely take a few days, or possibly just under a week, Klemm said, adding that how long they would take would be impacted by weather conditions.

Russia: Submarine cable damaged by external impact

Russia's state-controlled telecom giant Rostelecom said on Saturday that one of the company's underwater cables in the Baltic Sea was "damaged due to external impact."

The company did not disclose the exact cause of the damage, but confirmed that repair work was underway and added that the incident did not affect consumers.

This story was updated on February 9 to add information from Rostelecom.

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