Russia deployed a corvette to monitor a Chinese vessel that damaged cables in the Baltic Sea

24 November, 2024 Project 20380 "Mercury" corvette, St. Petersburg, 2023. Photo: Russian Ministry of Defense

Russia has deployed a warship into the Kattegat Strait between Denmark and Sweden to observe a Chinese ship that damaged cables. The Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported that the Russians sent the corvette Mercury for this purpose. According to experts interviewed by the newspaper, the warship arrived to monitor the situation with the Chinese cargo ship Yi Peng 3.

Yi Peng 3 is suspected of damaging cables in the Baltic Sea. The Helsingin Sanomat confirmed the warship's location with the help of an expert source using radio intelligence. "Perhaps it is ordered to stay and observe the situation.

Or simply to demonstrate force, which would be typical Russian behavior," the newspaper noted. On the evening of November 19, the Danish Navy detained the Chinese cargo ship Yi Peng 3, suspected of damaging two telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea. The Chinese vessel was sailing from the Russian port of Ust-Luga.

Sweden is also investigating the Chinese vessel's involvement in severing both cables. The bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 was in the area where both cables were damaged around the time of both incidents. A representative of the Chinese company Ningbo Yipeng Shipping, which owns the vessel, stated that "the government has asked the company to cooperate with the investigation."

Photo credits: theins.ru

Yi Peng 3 left the Russian port on November 11. It was reported that the ship's captain is a Russian, Alexander Stechentsev. He confirmed to The Insider that he was on the ship when it left Ust-Luga but as a pilot.

Stechentsev stated that he took the ship out of the port on November 15 and immediately returned on another ship, and that he was not among the crew when the cables were cut.