Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine at the latest, cases of suspected sabotage against critical infrastructure (KRITIS) have attracted worldwide attention. In the Baltic Sea in particular, pipelines have been destroyed and underwater cables severed on several occasions. Now, for the first time, a captain and two of his officers from the oil tanker "Eagle S" are on trial in Helsinki. The Finnish public prosecutor's office is accusing the...
Traditional ships are the maritime centrepiece of every sailing event, such as Kiel Week. They keep tradition alive and bring it to life. Now, however, a traditional sailing ship anchored in the Kiel Fjord and inspected by the water police is said to have discharged around 1,000 litres of faeces (black water) into the Baltic Sea. According to the report, the...
On 1 July 2025, a further ban on the discharge of wastewater from ships into Finnish territorial waters in the Baltic Sea came into force. This makes Finland the first country in the world to introduce a law, which was passed by the Finnish parliament in December 2024, that generally prohibits cargo ships from discharging wastewater into...
In December 2024, several countries bordering the North Sea and Baltic Sea, including Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Great Britain, Poland and Sweden, agreed in principle to inspect ships that are part of Russia's so-called shadow fleet and sail the English Channel, the Great Belt, the Öresund between Denmark and Sweden and the Gulf of Finland...
BALTOPS 2025: Mine countermeasures units arrive in Kiel As part of their deployment in the Baltic Sea and their active participation in BALTOPS 2025, the Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group One (SNMCMG1) will call at Kiel from 20 to 24 June 2025. Since the start of the exercise in Warnemünde, the SNMCMG1 has been fully...
On 20 June 2025, before the start of Kieler Woche, the minehunting boat "Datteln" returns to its home port of Kiel. For a total of six months, the boat was part of the Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1 (SNMCMG 1) and was involved in the Baltic MCM Ex 2025, Open Spirit and BALTOPS manoeuvres. Under...
Russian naval activity in the run-up to BALTOPS 2025 in the Skagerrak and western Baltic On 20 May 2025, the Russian frigate "Admiral Kasatonov" (project 22350) left its home port of Severomorsk. Together with the Udaloy class destroyer "Vitse Admiral Kulakov" (Project 1155), she was sighted in the Skagerrak on 26 May. While...
Major maritime manoeuvre BALTOPS starts for the first time in Rostock Baltic Operations, or BALTOPS for short, has been around for decades. It is NATO's most important US-led naval manoeuvre in the Baltic Sea. The multinational exercise usually lasts two weeks and ends in Kiel at the start of Kiel Week. Rather unnoticed for years, the...
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