Finnish court jails Russian captain of Fitburg for damaging underwater cables

The Helsinki District Court has sentenced two crew members of the Fitburg cargo ship to time in prison for damaging underwater telecommunications cables in the Gulf of Finland in late 2025.

Source: Finnish public service media company Yle, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Russian captain Andrei Maksimenko was found guilty of aggravated criminal damage and sentenced to three years and six months in prison. The ship's boatswain, Azerbaijani national Vusal Majidov, received a two-year and 10-month prison sentence. Both men were taken into custody directly from the courtroom.

The convicted sailors must also pay the affected companies compensation for the cost of repairing the telecommunications networks and gas pipeline, as well as cover the investigation's legal costs.

The sentences were harsher than those sought by prosecutors, who had requested prison terms of at least two and a half years.

The court dismissed the sailors' charges of aggravated interference with telecommunications, as it considered this offence to be covered by the charge of aggravated criminal damage.

The verdict is not final and can be appealed to the Court of Appeal. The convicted men deny their guilt.

The court established that the cargo ship had dragged its anchor and anchor chain along the seabed for several hours over a distance of nearly 130 km. This resulted in the severing of two underwater cables between Helsinki and Tallinn belonging to the Finnish telecommunications company Elisa. The crew's actions also posed a real threat of damage to seven other communication and electricity cables, as well as a gas pipeline.

The court established that the anchor securing mechanism was in working order and that the anchor had been raised when the vessel departed from the port of St Petersburg the previous day.

The indictment did not claim that the captain had personally given a direct order to lower the anchor into the sea or that the boatswain had personally played an active role in lowering it. However, the court concluded that both men were aware that the anchor was lowered while the vessel was sailing past the aforementioned cables and gas pipeline.

Background:

• On 31 December 2025, Finnish authorities detained the Fitburg cargo ship, which was travelling from Russia to Israel, on suspicion of damaging a telecommunications cable running through the Gulf of Finland from Helsinki to Estonia.
• The vessel was released two weeks later, but some crew members were prohibited from leaving Finland.
• The investigation into the case was completed in June.

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