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Vezhen Cargo Ship Seized by Sweden for Cable Damage [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-01-27
This is a log of real time investigating as details became available.
Early Sunday morning the Latvian Radio and Television Center (LVRTC) reported damage to its telecommunications fiber optic cable between Latvia and Sweden.
Swedish Navy spokesperson Jimmiee Adamsson said it was too early to say whether the damage was intentional or what caused the damage. "We don't know, it's too early in the investigation. We don't know if this is an accident, or a fault in the cable." He noted that NATO has primary responsibility in the investigation.
Other reports have said that Sweden would be taking the lead because it happened in their exclusive economic zone.
"NATO ships and aircraft are working together with national resources from the Baltic Sea countries to investigate, and, if necessary, take action." NATO said in a prepared statement.
The damage occurred in waters 50 meters (~164 ft) deep. LVRTC is looking for a contactor and ship to go out and do the repair work. Until the repair starts, the damage to the cable is unknown. They're still calling it damage instead of cut.
European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen reiterated her pledges to the security of the bloc's critical infrastructure following reports that an undersea Baltic cable had been damaged.
One ship that was in the area has already been investigated by the Latvian Navy. The bulk carrier the Michalis San what's on its way to Russia. There's nothing sinister showing up about it on Magicport.
Navy Commander Adm. Māris Polencs said, "We did not detect any suspicious activity on board or damage to the anchor. Additionally, We are continuing to analyze the movements of other vessels in the area."
Two other vessels have been identified as being in the area as well as the ship that's already been checked.
There are two new security measures that should have come into play. The AI system Nordic Warden. Created by the British Joint Expeditionary Force, it was supposed to keep track of ships traveling over and around undersea fiber optic and power cables, and gas pipelines. When a cable is damaged, monitoring goes real time on all ships in the area.
There is also the new alliance called Baltic Sentry. Launched by NATO, it includes frigates, patrol boats, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft and amphibious drones. The Dutch are including four F-35 fighter aircraft to the mix. It was It was formally announced on January 14 at a meeting of NATO and Baltic Nations.
NATO and Baltic leaders at Baltic Sentry meeting.
So, what happened this time? Who was not on alert? NATO member ships were already in the Baltic Sea patrolling since the Eagle S cut power and fiber optic cables on Christmas Day. Baltic nations have their own patrol boats and coast guard ships out as well.
It seems action has happened pretty quickly. NATO warships intercepted two ships, one of which has been detained by the Swedish Navy.
Open source intelligence analysts have identified the suspect vessels as Maltese flagged bulk carrier Vezhen and the Russian linked LNG carrier Pskov, formerly operated by the Russian state shipping company Sovcomflot
The Pskov is owned by a non-existent company called Nephrite Shipping Inc. No listing anywhere online. Not even on Magicport, and they've got everybody that does and doesn't exist. The report finds them at a shopping Plaza in the Seychelles. A dozen other companies were listed at the same address in the 2015 release of the Panama papers. The ship's ISM (International Safety Management) is Matias Ship Management LLC FZ. Guess where their office is? The Meydan Hotel in Dubai, UAE. The same as Caravella, the registered owner of the Eagle S. In a non-existent floor in a non-existent business center. So, the Pskov is owned by a shell company and managed and ISM by another non-existent company. This site has a different IMO for Pskov but still lists it as a LNG carrier.
The Vezhen is owned by Navigation Maritime Bulgare. Magicport says they own 30 vessels, but are the commercial manager and ISM for 1 ship, the Pirin. Usually the numbers are the other way around. They do exist with a real webpage, phone numbers, and real physical address in Bulgaria. A Russian site says the owner is Hai Kuo Shipping 2015B LTD, and the manager and ISM is Bulgare. Magicport shows 7 Hai Kuo Shipping's followed by the same number format, but not 2015B. This site says 2015B is registered in Hong Kong.
The UK newspaper The Telegraph confirmed that the Swedish Navy had seized a ship for "aggravated sabotage" of the undersea cable. The story only mentions the Vezhen but says the Swedes have not released any information. So where did the "aggravated sabotage" come from? It's only in the headline and not in the story.
The Vezhen is almost confirmed to be the ship seized. ABC News reports from Latvia that the cable section affected was between Latvia and the Swedish island Gotland, a key spot for NATO to keep track of Russia.
LVRTC cable.
The Swedish Coast Guard confirmed to the newspaper Expressen that they were on site near the vessel that the paper identified as the Malta flagged Vezhen, at anchor near the port of Kariskrona. "We are directly on site with the seized ship and are taking measures as decided by the prosecutor," said Mattias Lindholm, spokesperson for the Swedish Coast Guard.
The Vezhen departed from the Russian port of Ust-Luga days ago and was between Latvia and Gotland when the damage occurred. I thought for sure it was going to turn out to be the Russian tanker after doing the background check. Of course, the Vezhen doesn't have clear ownership and operation either.
After a Chinese news source said that the Vezhen was the ship seized and that it was an oil tanker, I decided to go to the Swedish newspaper directly.
The Expressen newspaper says right off the bat that the Vezhen has been seized. Bear in mind that this is a Google translate version of the Swedish website.
Summary:
● The Security Service is investigating serious sabotage after the cable break between Gotland and Latvia. ● The Malta registered cargo ship Vezhen has been seized. ● The ship left a Russian port on Friday. ● Swedish government personnel are now on board the ship which is anchored off Karlskrona.
The newspaper is now calling at a cable break, not just cable damage.
Swedish personnel are now on the ship said Gabriel Wernstedt, spokesperson at Säpo, the Swedish Security Service.
The ship is being guarded by two Swedish Coast Guard vessels, the KBV 033 and the KBV 431, which it describes as a fast "rib" boat. I think they meant "rhib", a Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boat, some can go 70 knots, ~80 mph.
Senior Prosecutor Mats Ljunggvist did not want to comment to to Expressen if any of the crew had been arrested.
The Prime Minister of Sweden and the Prime Minister of Latvia have spoken to each other about the incident and NATO has launched a major operation with ships and aircraft.
NATO already had Baltic Sentry operational. Not clear if this an additional effort besides all the ships and aircraft already committed.
The fiber optic cable cuts that were done on Christmas Day by the Eagle S were repaired in less than 2 weeks. The power cable is different. That takes 7 months. So whatever was done to the fiber optic cable between Latvia and Sweden, it'll be back up and running in no time.
Overnight there was new reporting and a picture of the ship's anchor showing it missing a fluke.
Anchor missing second fluke.
Helsingen Sanomat reports that not only is the ship flagged in Hong Kong, but it is owned by the Chinese state. Again, this is a Swedish site translated into English by Google translate.
The Swedish newspaper found out what I traced, that while most information show it to be owned by Navigation Maritime Bulgare, also know as Navibulgar, it is really owned by Hai Kuo Shipping 2015B.
The company in question was registered in the Hong Kong Commercial Register in the summer of 2022. The company is backed by ICBC Leasing, a leasing and financing arm of Chinese state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. The company offers among other things, sale-and-lease-back arrangements, in which the shipping company can free up capital by selling it's vessels to ICBC and then leasing them back.
Path of Vezhen.
This now explains how Navibulgar seemed to be the owner of the Vezhen, but was actually owned by Hai Kuo Shipping 2015B.
According to a Bulgarian news agency, Navibulgar CEO Alexandr Kalchev denied sabotage and said the ship may have accidentally damaged the cable. Kalchev said, according to the news agency, that the weather was very bad and the crew noticed on Sunday morning that the ship's second anchor was dragging on the bottom.
LVRTC cable section damaged.
No other news report has said anything about bad weather. Just like with the Eagle S, it's nearly impossible to not know the ship is dragging a cable across of the sea. The vibration alone would have been noticed.
There is a crew of 17 on the ship. According to MarineTraffic, it crossed the damaged submarine cable shortly before 1:00 a.m. Sunday night.
The Pskov is being escorted by three ships from Finland and Estonia. Being a Russian ship, they don't trust it either.
Vezhen was transiting close to Gotland, within the Swedish EEZ, and AIS data appears to show that she slowed for half an hour after passing the cable crossings.
"The reinforced presence in the Baltic Sea enables a rapid and coordinated response if required," wrote Jimmee Adamsson, the Swedish Navy's spokesperson.
The broken ship anchor is a dead giveaway. We know who caused the damage already.
Was it deliberate? Unless everyone was asleep on board at 1:00 a.m., it would have been very hard not to notice just the sound of the anchor dropped. They're always has to be crew awake in order to run the ship and set its course. So everyone being asleep is not an excuse.
The other excuse that is invalid is that they didn't notice the anchor being dragged for some period of time. The vibration on the cable would have been both noisy and impeding the progress of the ship. There's also the AIS data showing the ship slowed down. Not notice that?
Another Swedish report says the ship almost stopped for 10 minutes over the cable.
Before and after. You can see the second fluke is damaged, too.
There are seven other Hai Kuo Shipping companies all listed at the same address. 5/F Manulife Place, 348 Kwun Tong Rd., Kowloon, Hong Kong. 1757B, 1934B ,1952B, 2220B, 2221B, 2222B, 2229B. 2259C is in Dublin, Ireland. 2228B I can't find. It's on MagicPort with no vessels at all.
I just found a listing for 2015B. It's the same Hong Kong address as all the others.
Manulife Place is a 20 story office building with 667,000 square ft. and 10.5 ft. high ceilings. Areas to rent start at HK$31 to HK$34 a square foot. Smallest area is 10,000 square. ft. going up to 71,558. 5/F means the 5th Floor. A 36,779 sq.ft. office is HK$1,106,885, that's a whole floor in the building. I'm going to assume that's yearly. I found this occupant at Office No. 3, Level 19. So, less than a whole floor has a number. I found what I think is a bogus company saying they are on 6/F for educational services. The page doesn't look like a company that could afford a whole floor.
For Hai Kuo Shipping 2015B, and all the others ones, to take a whole floor of the building would be a huge operation. Wouldn't you be found on the internet with a glowing webpage, different phone numbers for each department, and multiple emails? This looks all fake just like all the shell companies in The Meydan Hotel in Dubai on M Floor.
Now we wait for the real owners, Hai Kuo Shipping 2015, to show up and explain how they both don't and do exist. Another company that has no website, phone number, or email.
I'm going to assume these are all the same operation with ICBC Leasing owning the ships and leasing them back.
The Swedes have the ship, they've got the evidence. The excuses won't work. Next is finger pointing and disavowal of any culpability. Then we see what happens when a lawyer for the company shows up.
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