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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