Both Finnish and Estonian authorities have completed their work aboard the Fitburg, allowing the seizure of the ship to be lifted, National Bureau of Investigation (KRP) chief Risto Lohi said.

The Fitburg, which was en route from Russia to Israel, is suspected of deliberately damaging an Elisa-owned undersea telecommunications cable linking Estonia and Finland on New Year's Eve. The site of the damage lies in Estonia's exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Finnish authorities detained the vessel later that day.

After Finnish Customs completed its own procedures, Finnish police formally impounded the ship last Wednesday to carry out investigative measures on board.

Lohi said a detained member of the Fitburg crew was taken into custody this Sunday, while several other crew members remain under a travel ban.

The crew member now in custody, a 48-year-old Azerbaijani citizen, is suspected of aggravated criminal damage, attempted aggravated criminal damage and aggravated interference with telecommunications.

The ship's operator, Sarfo, said last week that the detained crew member worked aboard the Fitburg as a boatswain, or the head of the vessel's deck crew.

According to the shipping company, the Fitburg's captain is Russian citizen Andrei Maksimenko, 56, from Astrakhan in southern Russia. According to the application he submitted to a Russian job-seeking site, Maksimenko has extensive maritime experience and has worked as a captain, including on Albros-operated vessels, since 2010.

As of Monday morning, no arrest warrant for the captain had been filed with the Helsinki District Court.

The Fitburg's parent companies, Albros and Sarfo, operate in Turkey but are of Russian origin. The cargo ship sails under the flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Finnish daily paper Helsingin Sanomat initially reported last week that the detained crew member was serving on the Fitburg for the first time, citing Sarfo. The company later corrected its account, and recruitment manager Alexander Ivanov told the paper Monday that this is the crew member's sixth contract on the ship.

The boatswain joined the crew in St. Petersburg on December 27, and the vessel departed three days later.

Ship held for nearly two weeks

Finnish authorities intercepted and seized the Fitburg in the Gulf of Finland on December 31, moving it to the Port of Kantvik, 30 kilometers west of Helsinki.

The Fitburg was escorted out of Finnish territorial waters by the Finnish Border Guard late this Monday morning.

The Baltic Sea region has been on heightened alert following multiple disruptions to power and telecommunications links and gas pipelines in the area since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

NATO has increased its military presence in the Baltic, deploying warships, aircraft and naval drones.

Finland and Sweden both joined NATO in 2023, while Estonia has been a member since 2004.

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