On board the Estonian ship that patrols the Baltic Sea

DW (English)

The warship Sakala is actually a minehunter but its current mission is to monitor traffic and detect suspicious activity in the Baltic Sea. In the Baltic countries there is growing concern about being left unprotected against Russia.

Transcript

00:00This oil tanker, discovered by the Estonian patrol ship Sakala in the middle of the Gulf of Finland.

00:09The tanker turns out to be a Russian ship.

00:12The Sakala approaches the vessel looking for any suspicious activity.

00:19A ship is considered suspicious if it suddenly slows down, makes a sudden turn or refuses to communicate with the patrol craft.

00:29Checks like these are now routine for the Sakala's crew.

00:34So the task of my ship is to patrol a dedicated area, monitor all traffic that is going through here,

00:44to make sure that nothing suspicious or nothing bad will be done in this area.

00:54The Sakala with the registration M314 is actually a mine hunter.

01:00Its mission is to locate and neutralize sea mines in times of war.

01:06The Sakala is currently on a different mission along with other NATO ships in the Baltic Sea.

01:13Yesterday we saw something hanging from an anchor chain from one cargo vessel.

01:21We went closer, we contacted the vessel and we checked.

01:26Actually, it wasn't anything else, but it was just a fire hose tangled in the anchor chain.

01:34With a crew of 38, the Sakala is one of three Estonian Navy vessels currently patrolling the Gulf of Finland,

01:42a part of the Baltic Sea that is around 80 kilometers wide.

01:47The fact that a mine hunting vessel is on patrol in the Baltic Sea

01:51shows how seriously Estonia takes several suspicious incidents in these waters in recent months.

01:59Increased vigilance is the order of the day here in the Gulf of Finland.

02:04After a series of suspected acts of sabotage in the Baltic Sea,

02:09there are going to be more patrols on ships like this one.

02:13Oil tankers from the so-called Russian Shadow Fleet are allegedly behind the sabotage campaign,

02:20including suspected attacks on undersea communications cables.

02:25Moscow is accused of using them as a weapon in hybrid warfare against the West.

02:32Most of the tankers reportedly are old,

02:35often with an obscure ownership structure in order to circumvent Western sanctions.

02:43The increased patrols in the Baltic Sea are also intended to provide more security for the population on land.

02:51Especially now, when many people in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are increasingly concerned

02:58that the Russians could soon attack one of their countries as a test of NATO solidarity.

03:05They're putting us all on trial.

03:08It's very unsafe.

03:10They've always been dangerous. If they break up Ukraine, they'll come here next.

03:18Back in the Baltic Sea, the Sakala takes part in an exercise with a Finnish warship.

03:23Finland has been a member of NATO since 2023.

03:28With this exercise and the patrols, NATO wants to show a more robust presence,

03:34strengthening its deterrence against Russia.

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