"Had it continued for another 12 minutes, the carnage would have been much worse than the four basic cables that were there," Finnish President Alexander Stubb said.

Old tankers are damaging crucial subsea cables using their anchors. Analysts say it's likely deliberate.

On Christmas Day, authorities in Estonia and Finland noted the sudden interruption of the Estlink 2 undersea electricity cable linking their two nations - just as ship tracking data showed the Cook Islands-registered "Eagle S" passing outbound from Russia’s Baltic coast en route to Egypt.

and flagged in places like Gabon or the Cook Islands. Some of the vessels are owned by the Russian state Sovcomflot shipping company. Their role is to help Russia’s oil exporters elude the $60 per barrel price cap imposed by Ukraine’s allies.

In total, the United States is sanctioning 183 oil-carrying vessels, Russian oil traders and oilfield providers, the two Russian oil majors and more than two dozen of their subsidiaries, according to the Treasury Department.

Russia is believed to be behind dozens of hybrid attacks, like arson or sabotage, on NATO soil since the Ukraine war started.

Still, the official announcement declined to use the word war to characterize Moscow’s activities outside Ukraine. Instead, the EU condemned Russians’ “destabilising” and “malicious actions.” The inability to describe acts of war as acts of war is part of a culture of distortion and denial regarding the subject of state-sponsored violence.

A spate of alleged sabotage operations against undersea cables in the Baltic Sea has raised the prospect of a dangerous 2025 in NATO's northern theater.

Identifying suspect ships and limiting their activities is the most efficient way to protect critical undersea infrastructure, European Commission Vice President Henna Virkkunen told Reuters on Monday.

President Joe Biden's administration announced Friday that it's expanding sanctions against Russia's critically important energy sector, unveiling a new effort to inflict pain on Moscow for its grinding war in Ukraine as President-elect Donald Trump gets set to return to office vowing to quickly end the conflict.

and flagged in places like Gabon or the Cook Islands. Some of the vessels are owned by Russia’s state-owned Sovcomflot shipping company. Their role is to help Russia’s oil exporters elude the $60 per barrel price cap imposed by Ukraine’s allies.

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