Denmark closely monitors Chinese ship after suspected sabotage in Baltic undersea cable break

The Chinese cargo ship Yi Peng 3 is anchored in the Kattegat Strait between Denmark and Sweden this Wednesday, with a Danish navy patrol vessel anchored nearby, MarineTraffic vessel tracking data shows. “The Danish Defense Forces can confirm that we are present in the area near the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3”the army said in a post on the X social network, adding that it had no further comments.

It is quite rare for the Danish military to comment publicly on individual ships transiting Danish waters. They did not mention the cable cuts or explain why they remained next to the ship.

Regarding the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3: The Danish Defense can confirm that we are present in the area near the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3. The Danish Defense currently has no further comments.

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—Forsvaret (@forsvaretdk.bsky.social) November 20, 2024, 12:20

The Chinese ship left the Russian port of Ust-Luga on Nov. 15 and was in the areas where the cable damage occurred, according to traffic data, which showed other ships were also in those areas.

A cable connecting Sweden to Lithuania was cut on Sunday, and another between Finland and Germany was damaged less than 24 hours later on Monday.

The outages occurred in Sweden’s exclusive economic zone, and Swedish prosecutors on Tuesday launched a preliminary investigation on suspicion of possible sabotage.

The Minister of Civil Defense of Sweden, Carl-Oskar Bohlintold Reuters on Tuesday that the country’s armed forces and coast guard had recorded ship movements that coincided with the disruption of two telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea.

A Chinese government spokesperson said at a daily news briefing on Wednesday that they always require their ships to comply with relevant laws and regulations.

“We also attach great importance to the protection of submarine infrastructure and, together with the international community, are actively promoting the construction and protection of submarine cables and other global information infrastructure,” the spokesperson said.

Russia rejects any suggestion that it was involved in the damage to the two cables. European governments on Tuesday accused the Kremlin of stepping up hybrid attacks against Ukraine’s Western allies, although They avoided directly accusing Russia of destroying the cables. When asked about the issue on Wednesday, spokesman Dimitri Peskov told a news conference: “It is quite absurd to continue blaming Russia for everything without any basis.”