Finland’s Coast Guard claims Russian satellite jamming is causing vessels to lose course in the Baltic Sea.
And commander Pekka Niittyla told Reuters that shadow fleet tankers have also been spoofing their locations in recent weeks.
Interior minister Lulu Ranne said last week that Finland believes Russia is behind disturbances to signals detected in her country and the wider Baltic Sea region.
The Coast Guard claimed jamming of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) has become increasingly frequent since April, and has led to ships becoming lost or coming off their planned course.
Finnish authorities have had to alert vessels approaching islands or shallow waters.
The Coast Guard argued that disturbances have led to problems with ships’ automatic identification systems.
“In recent weeks, we have also observed that [AIS] devices have been intentionally turned off, and thus the location information has been spoofed in online location systems … so that an incorrect location is shown for the vessel,” Niittyla said.
Russia has in the past denied tampering with satellite networks.
Spoofing has been detected for about 10 tankers visiting Russian ports around St Petersburg.
“Based on our assessment, this is related to the evasion of sanctions or their consequences,” the commander added.
Protecting terminals from Ukraine?
“If a country buying Russian oil does not want to see that the oil was purchased from Russia, the seller or vessel might use spoofing to make it seem like the vessel had not visited Russia.”
Finland believes GNSS jamming is being used to protect oil terminals from attack by Ukraine.
The environmental risks of this alleged sabotage are now being heightened by increasingly wintry conditions in the Baltic, Niittyla added.
