Finnish court jails Russian captain of Fitburg for damaging undersea cables

The Helsinki District Court has handed down prison sentences to two crew members of the Fitburg cargo ship for damaging undersea telecommunications cables in the Gulf of Finland in late 2025.

As reported by Finnish public service media company Yle, the ship's Russian captain, Andrei Maksimenko, was found guilty of aggravated criminal damage and sentenced to three and a half years in prison. The boatswain, Azerbaijani national Vusal Majidov, received a prison sentence of two years and 10 months. Both men were taken into custody directly from the courtroom.

The convicted seafarers must also pay damages to the companies affected for the cost of repairing the telecommunications networks and gas pipeline, as well as covering the legal costs of the investigation.

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

The court dismissed 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 had pleaded not guilty.

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 undersea cables operated by the Finnish telecommunications company Elisa between Helsinki and Tallinn. The crew's actions also resulted in a real risk of damage to seven other communication and electricity cables, as well as a gas pipeline.

The court established that the anchor's locking mechanism had been in working order and that the anchor had been raised when the vessel set sail from the port of St Petersburg the previous day.

The charge sheet did not claim that the captain himself had explicitly ordered the anchor to be lowered into the sea or that the boatswain had personally played an active role in lowering it. However, the court concluded that both men had been aware that the anchor was lowered while the vessel was sailing past the cables and gas pipeline.

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.