The state-of-the-art Turva became world-famous as the first ship to reach Eagle S, the tanker loaded with Russian gasoline that tore apart submarine cables by dragging its anchor along the bottom of the Gulf of Finland on Christmas Day 2024.
Now, about a year later, Turva gets to act as the “villain” when a similar event is simulated in an exercise. The special forces unit, a group of elite soldiers, arrive in small rubber boats and then climb aboard. Quickly and quietly, they make their way up to take over the command bridge.
"They use either inflatable boats or a helicopter to reach a suspicious vessel," says Commander Mikko Simola as he watches with satisfaction.
"Today the weather is too bad for the helicopter," he adds, looking out over the gray, foggy Gulf of Finland.
Worst event
A helicopter was used for the Eagle S, and the dramatic video of the boarding was then released in news reports about the seized ship. The question of sabotage in that case, and if so, who was behind it, is now being heard in the courts.
Eagle S is perhaps the worst incident here since Russia's major invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but for the border guards of Finland and Estonia it is now a constant, acute concern. The Eagle S came from Russia's Ust-Luga, which, together with Primorsk, continues to fill President Putin's war chest by exporting fossil fuels via the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea to the world.
"There are 35 to 50 tankers arriving per week," says Simola.
Sanctions packages from the EU, among others, against Russia's "shadow fleet", which have singled out Eagle S, for example, are clearly not helping.
"We notice that there are constantly 'new' ships arriving - that is, even older ships that have changed owners, with unclear insurance and unclear ice classification," sighs Simola.
For almost two years now, the risks have increased further.
"Starting in spring 2024, we have observed more or less constant satellite interference, which affects ships' navigation."
A few nautical miles
When asked where the disturbances come from, he nods towards the Russian part of the Gulf of Finland.
"Well, it's from the east, from the southeast."
The disturbances can make ships think they are in one place when they are actually somewhere else. Simola produces a sketch map showing a situation where the coast guard had to contact a freighter he does not want to name that was about to run straight into an island.
The waters of the Gulf of Finland are shared by Finland to the north, Estonia to the south and Russia to the east. At its narrowest point, there is only 40 kilometres between the Finnish and Estonian islands. The international waters preferred by the shadow fleet are just a “trough” in the middle, a few nautical miles wide.
Here, freight traffic, which largely travels in an east-west direction, crosses routes for ferries between Sweden, Estonia and Finland.
"The worst scenario would be a collision between a crowded Finnish ferry and a ship loaded with oil or chemicals," says Mikko Simola.
New money for the war machine
He produces images of what the nightmare could look like. They were taken in the Gulf of Oman, between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula, in June of this year, and show huge clouds of smoke after the ships Front Eagle and Adalynn collided and started burning, following similar satellite disturbances that are now in the Baltic Sea.
Adalynn has belonged to the Russian shadow fleet and visited the Gulf of Finland as recently as 2024.
Finland and Estonia are working hard to prevent such scenes in the Gulf of Finland. Turva, the Finnish border guard's largest ship, is so far alone in its class, but two similar ships are currently being built.
"The shadow fleet is pumping new money into Putin's war machine every day, and is a growing environmental threat," said Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo at a summit in Helsinki in mid-December.
"We have shown that we can react, but we must do more. We need more EU sanctions and also turn to other countries - the shadow ships are flagged somewhere."
Finland is the EU's fifth-largest country by area.
It borders Norway to the north, Russia to the east, the Gulf of Finland to the south, and Sweden, the Gulf of Bothnia and the Bothnian Sea to the west.
It has been independent since 1917. Before that, it belonged to Russia for just over 100 years, and before that, it was part of Sweden for over 600 years.
Even since independence, Finland has often had a difficult relationship with its large neighbor to the east. In connection with World War II, it was forced to agree to the then Soviet Union taking over almost all of Karelia, which in the southeast faces the Gulf of Finland. This meant that Finland lost the country's second largest city, Vyborg, and an area almost the size of nine Gotland islands.
In the 1990s, the then-impoverished Russia signaled that Finland could buy back Karelia. However, the costs would have been so high that then-President Mauno Koivisto said no.
