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A sanctioned vessel from Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” carried out “suspicious maneuvers” near an undersea power cable connecting Poland and Sweden, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote in a statement on X on Wednesday.
“After the effective intervention of our military, the ship sailed to one of the Russian ports,” Tusk added, noting that a Polish Navy survey ship ORP Heweliusz was en route to the area.
The 600-megawatt cable runs from the Swedish coast near Karlshamn to the northern Polish city of Ustka, enabling the two countries to share electricity based on supply and demand fluctuations.
Polish Deputy PM and Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz confirmed the cable is owned by Polish grid operator PSE. He later tweeted:
“Yesterday, our services observed a tanker from the 'shadow fleet' maneuvering near the power cables connecting Poland and Sweden. The tanker was outside the Polish Exclusive Economic Zone. In the evening, a patrol plane of the Naval Aviation Brigade was sent to the Baltic Sea region. The crew established communication with the ship, informing that its activities were being monitored. The ship left the area of operations and headed for one of the Russian ports.
Today, the Commander of the Maritime Operations Center sent the hydrographic vessel ORP Heweliusz to the scene of the incident. It is now reaching the area of operations. Its task will be to check the designated water area for infrastructure safety.”
The “shadow fleet” is a collection of poorly maintained and underinsured aging vessels that Moscow uses to bypass the $60-per-barrel oil price cap set in December 2022 by the G7 countries, the EU, and Australia.
The incident comes amid heightened tensions in the Baltic Sea, where NATO has ramped up security measures following multiple cases of damaged undersea infrastructure — including power lines, telecom cables, and gas pipelines — since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.