International investigators suspect a Chinese ship's crew of deliberately dragging an anchor 111 miles along the sea bed to sever two subsea cables in the Baltic Sea.
The Yi Peng 3 sailed over both the C-Lion1 Helsinki-Rostock cable and the BCS East-West link cable between Lithuania and Sweden around the time they were cut.
It has now been surrounded by European warships in international waters as the investigation continues.
Investigators believe that the ship dropped anchor in Swedish waters on November 17 at around 9 pm local time but continued sailing - even as it greatly reduced its speed, according to satellite and other data reviewed by investigators and reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The dragging anchor cut the first cable between Sweden and Lithuania shortly afterward, and then cut the second cable around 3 am the next day. During this time, the ship's transponder was shut down.
The ship then started zigzagging, raised its anchor, and continued on its normal path.
People familiar with the investigation told the Journal that the vessel’s anchor and hull showed damage that was consistent with dragging an anchor and damaging cables.
Weather conditions also make the likelihood of accidental anchor dragging low, an analysis by analytics company Kpler provided by the Journal said.
Investigators are now looking into whether Russian intelligence officials ordered the cable’s destruction, with the ship having last docked at the Russian port of Ust-Luga to pick up a delivery of Russian fertilizer.
The Yi Peng 3 is captained by a Chinese national and includes a Russian sailor. The crew has yet to be questioned.
Western law enforcement and intelligence officials don’t believe the Chinese government was part of the suspected scheme, the Journal reports.
The Journal added that the ship’s owner, Ningbo Yipeng Shipping, is cooperating with investigators.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that it was "quite absurd to continue to blame Russia for everything without any reason."
Last year, a gas pipeline and communications cables on the bottom of the Baltic Sea linking Finland and Estonia were also damaged.
That incident was also suspected to have been caused by a Chinese carrier, the container vessel Newnew Polar Bear. That time, the ship was allowed to escape capture, something authorities were reportedly keen to avoid.
