MARITIME

20 April 2023: The North Sea

Danish reporters filmed armed men on a suspected Russian spy ship in the North Sea. The ship appeared to be mapping wind turbines. Other sites report surveillance by these ships, dubbed “ghost ships” in areas with underwater data cables and other pieces of infrastructure in the North Sea. Some experts say they are doing this in preparation for a campaign of sabotage in the event of conflict with the West, an investigation revealed. Moscow allegedly deployed the ships, including this one, the Admiral Vladimirsky, to carry out underwater surveillance and map key sites for possible disruption to European communications and energy, infrastructure that is sometimes shared with Britain, according to reports by public broadcasters in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.