since the rushes were in ukraine, on persons from the line starts october 26th on d. w. not far from copenhagen. a russian ship is making its way from st. petersburg across the baltic sea disability, i called, is no ordinary research vessel. it does not simply explore secrets and oceans. it has a secret mission, a mission that has put the military and intelligence services in europe on alert. the danish military does not like the ship out of its site on board the suppose that the research vessel armed soldiers

what is the mission of the severe yackel of the baltic sea has become the theatre of a new cold war here below the water on the sea bed europe is vulnerable. that's where the central modern infrastructure is located pipelines. data cables, power lines. if they are destroyed, gas and electricity supplies will be cut off. that would be a catastrophe. millions of households depend on them. intelligent surfaces, like germany's b n, d r, nervous, they're keeping a very close eye on russian activities. this is missing

festooned us. and it's not just the war. and ukraine that has shown that like russia is willing and able to use violence. phase is divided on violence against the property, right? the violence against infrastructure, even even such a spine to propose sabotaged operations to file for we consider the danger to be very real. this is not something abstract will be facing in 10 or 20 years timed in the pace of which russia is raising tensions, and speeding up measures to make it militarily capable of acting against the west. means we have good reason to take a very concrete look at this trend of espionage and sabotaged conflicts. these constitute an important part of this threat more than 70 research vessels, most of which answer to the russian ministry of defense. they have sensitive technology on board, such as so in ours, huge radar systems or even laboratories, some items. it's not truly in the,

on the one hand of costs and the supply and communication can help in possibly making preparations by acts of sabotage on both sides. on the other hand, they are checking out military structures, particularly this too is about communication one. but this is also about ships arguments and supplements, and it is about energy funds, which can also be subject to sabotage because it's about pipelines, pipelines. the growing underwater threat is not only directed at germany, nato has sent off its own intelligence unit. the aim is to provide more security for underwater infrastructure. lieutenant's general hon. span of your mind was temporarily recalled from retirement for his expertise. let's get slice. so typically there are 2 strategic areas that russia has continued to invest in without interruption. since the end of the cold war, as i know, so it's one is the nuclear sector was, was the other, is the underwater 2nd,

sir. no visible spending here has continued unabated, and this shows the importance of moscow attaches to that sector. bishop, the item must go windows. oh boy, by mister the c bed would be an important funeral for business where europe is vulnerable to russia has obviously always realized this you ever see or so. so we knew that there are a number of russian ships, classic ships that concert both civilian and military purposes, ocean. so i can, these are all ships, those are projects with the words academic work professor will begin. so it can be equipped with measurement technology, such as high resolution, acoustic sensors, for underwater video systems would all what window. so it'd be used which can, of course, also be used to pinpoint cables and pipelines and pipelines cutting. so they are ready if it comes down to it. it's designed for the info defendant. the automatic identification system can be used to monitor shipping activities. routes can be

tracked online in real time. we can see that a russian research vessel is approaching the academic cop pinsky. how is it equipped and how close can we get? we'll leave the port of rostock early in the morning. the shift is due to pass less than 10 nautical miles off the coast. suddenly it appears in front of us the car pinsky is old, but it clearly has special capabilities at stern. we can see a huge capstone that can be used to lower measuring equipment into the sea. we're not the only ones keeping a close eye on the vessel. just a few 100 meters away. a german police ship is telling it. suppose that research vessels such as the academic cop in ski, no longer sale, underscored through the baltic sea. they are shadowed.

we don't go unnoticed on either a police launch approaches the we are coming on board to make checks of the deal as it was. the reason is you were accompanying this russian ship and recording it on film. everyone out here seems to be jittery. the mere fact that we were near the car pinsky alarmed the police who took our personal details. the ship continues on its way. only people who have been on board such research vessels really know what happens below deck. we want to find them. we search crew list, seafaring, job portals, and social media. after a long search, we find a former crew member of the cit berry i called, willing to talk to us. that was the ship on whose that we had observed armed

soldiers. the men now lives in the u. k. his work as a sea man on the research ship ended shortly before the war against ukraine began. it's the 1st time he has spoken to a journalist about his time on board. although he has left russia, he does not want to be identified and his own voice has been replaced. he is worried about his family, who still live in russia. after all, he's sharing military secrets. the 5 them 6 are close and we need to the base exec at low speed when they're looking at the c bed. that's always an indication that they're doing the real work. and the spyware used to be a nice job, but the varnish does. they don't want people to know when they working vendor, and if the ship is just drifting in the current stuff, then most of that means the engine is switched off and then they're using this. so

now and then we'll have to switch off all ambient noise charge. he shows us videos that he showed himself on the city of the yacht culture. he worked and lived here for months at a time. and he was allowed to move around freely with some of the rooms on the ship or off limits to him. most of the time, the severe yell calling for captains position, tracking system switched off. he tells us so as to go on detected if possible. but one of the russian research vessels doing exactly alas for anything detected on the sea bed, whether an internet cable or a power line is a strategic enemy object. if you destroyed in the event of war, you have an advantage just are still just one. and for to the direct your function of the research best soul system is therefore to scan the c bed and supply this

information to the military to buy 1st day. and we're going to discover even more about this research vessel. as we follow the city we, y'all call this journey and find out that it's name is associated with an unprecedented case of sabotage concerning a gas pipeline sale. of course, let's go here. the baltic connector was built in estonia in 2018. it was intended to make a sonia independent of russian gas for the but then last fall came this announcement . that's the course of the year after the nord stream pipeline bombings. finland confirmed this week that it is investigating a rupture and a sub c gas pipeline. it stretches all the way to estonia. on the morning of october, 8th 2023. it became clear that parts of the pipeline were completely destroyed. the finish all fourties launched an investigation. as a book connecting us looks like boston on hong kong, the focus of the preliminary investigations was on the phone call and registered

vessel, a new new polar bear. what am i misspoke and it's minute. we have also investigated a significantly large area of the survey and by the end of this and then find a fairly large object fluids to the damage site to the color, then it is all on it. and then it's got many more, even though i missed the navy pulled the object out early this morning to the us. yeah, yeah. well that it's an anchor with the dimensions in meters of 2.5 by 2 noise by one of what we get a box, you get a diagram. it to the anchor weighs almost 6 metric tons. the tiny ship it belongs to is this one new new polar bear? the investigators still don't know exactly what happened during its journey, but we can reconstructed in part. on october 6th, 2023. the best the left russian exclaim of cleaning, grabbed. a storm blew up while traveling at full speed,

the ship dropped its anchor, dragging it more than 200 kilometers along the sea bed with it. later, there was a huge leak in the pipeline. 3 data cables were also damaged. neither the chinese ministry of foreign affairs nor the shipping company involved responded to our questions. aging has since submitted the new new polar bear cause the devastation, allegedly by mistake. the investigation is ongoing. stephane clue, guy is a naval architect. he is also worked on the case. he finds china's claim that the anchor dropped by accident observed. as an ongoing is an anchor which is pure and mechanical engineering, them to put it bluntly who does the cancel the whole. you have a joint angle winch with the chain attached this to and there was a chain step on and a chain lock at the front. prevent the chain from accidentally slipping out. stop. but if you want to drop in and got, you have to mechanically remove this very bulky chain stuff on. now you have to

remove the chain lock and operate the ankle. when jake you should be able to, that would wake up everyone on board. the chain makes a very heavy and really rumble faster. does that square with the accident theory? let's put it all states completely out of the question. from a technical point of view, it's completely impossible. basically. i think unless they were on measuring mushrooms or whatever, you could only do this in a controlled and conscious mental destiny is called the most money. so what actually happened? rumors start to emerge that russian might have something to do with the case. we decided to find out which ships were in the area before the accident. conventional tracking data isn't any health. some should switch off their systems to remain undetected. we notice from our environment. is there any other way together with journalists from norway, estonia, the netherlands, and the u. k. we come up with a solution. the coating, the morse code messages sent in the area russian research vessel send out weather

reports every 6 hours. they are transmitted by morse code and contain location data . we analyze all the morse code signals in the area. this message sent near the baltic connector belongs to a ship. we knew the secretary yackel of the ship with the soldiers on board. in the weeks leading up to the destruction of the boat to connect her, its position data keeps on appearing to the left and to the right of the pipeline. in other words, it passes over it several times whether the ship had anything to do with the destruction cannot be proven beyond a doubt. certainly its activities in the area are striking. from now on, we can use morse code messages to track the secret research fleet to follow its movements. even if it's aim is to remain on identified. the data analysis will take

months. german research vessels also collect information with completely different goals, but similar technology. but then up as part of germany's maritime and hydrographic agency and carries out surveys that are important for nautical charts. for example, is particularly shallow areas. abnormalities on the sea, dead or wrecks are examined by captain unbiased cheese and his crew. things of exec 6 of new if he is even come on succeed today, they are surveying assigned using sonar technology on my mind. and as i said, we have a multi beam and co sound office, which means that means we can survey 80 meters of to see ben beneath. that's fine. if you can see small stones line that they're really not big from, we can see all the foreign bodies rising off. how to off online, on the see, then,

you can the, i can pretend and collects information to warn other ships of any danger and makes it public. but of course, the special capabilities of research vessels can also be used in other ways. a russian research vessel the going let's on appeared very close to here. last year. what was it doing? we show the captain of the den and the course it took on october 15 to 2023. the ship is exact. around near the german island of fame on for over a day in some places, it remained stationary for hours. as it does eat, us not looks not good classic science course and quite stuck in principle. it's crossing a position with flat intersections and keeps on passing over its with sets and variations which gives us. and this indicates that in principle,

it is looking for something in the area of those intersections like this. this new phones go through. but what exactly is so interesting there come door to the ultimate, you can take a picture at the c bed that and with mountain, so not technology. you can also detect things that a much smaller than a meta in dimension. you can decline out. it's made up methyl meeting, what kind of areas this as soon as yeah, this isn't done so something rena, exercise area. in other words, when nato submarines generally dying from not to what it told me, it is impossible to say exactly what the gory gladto was doing. but it was shirley, no coincidence that the ship, what's in the submarine exercise area, if it was on funds, as long as the technical sensors on the sufferings are of particular interest to russia, how do they communicate to? how do the controller weapon systems in all this technical data can be collected in

these areas? and we assume that this is exactly what these research ships are doing. and actually if we can all of us off to our informants to work on the superior call of also travel to submarine diving areas. thus we agree with terms of what we did was to wait until the submarine had dived as deep as it could and done it then as ship tried to find it. it's like a game of hide and seek, but in the military scale, most once you try to find the exact border way, you can still identify the submarines with the same special equipment that a nato ship has. i know that was the reason we went to these areas only and he's a good beat ticket funds in the extensible research vessels are systematically spying and the baltic sea in their sites, suffering areas, cables and underwater pipelines. hidden infrastructure that only rarely comes to the attention of the public in the way that it did in 2022. and they know several

weeks of being discovered in the north stream $1.00 and $2.00 pipelines from which gas is flowing into the bowl succeed is point the bombing of the north stream pipelines visa tax in particular, illustrated the vulnerability of the marine infrastructure. hundreds of thousands of tons of russian gas were escaping from the pipelines gas which was meant to be destined for europe. it is still not clear who was behind the blast. the nature wants to be better prepared in the future. and exercise maneuvers under way of the pharaoh islands in the north atlantic. military forces from 3 countries are training how to protect pipelines and cables. as the german ship do now is leading the maneuver of the lives of like a lot of the current traffic situation is that we still have an offshore the best.

so coming into woods towards hobbins, send you the whole stuff. and the crew normally searches for mines key and as under the we're testing our equipment to see if we can do more than ranking detection. and you have to know as a contribution to need to our other neighboring country and sort of to simply make the walter safer in this day and age. some of them into work. and we can, as you've seen this is leading to we have various toolboxes on some equipment. so in our systems under what you're drones, etc, so that we could deployed to safeguard critical underwater infrastructure. who has already been some minds of it would certainly be a win win situation given to us. so the training takes place on one of the other ships, the french se fee. here they are practicing using an underwater drone. the drone searches the murphy c bed transmitting the images to the observation room in real time. the

one of the saying is the training of the toes. so that on the screen on this, on, on the can, they can analysis and do an analysis are and, and, and get the difference between a normal rock or something most suspicious. in the future, the operators should, for example, be able to detect sabotaged cables for explosive devices on pipelines more quickly . while the crew continues to work on the bridge, a message suddenly arrives. a russian ship has been spotted the . the interesting 12 bits was from the russian both even if they are a civilian. and so it, i pretend to report the report it to the alternative to just get the motion picture

. and so it's one day that the ship is i don't know targeted far and anything we can provide some info about mistrusted see, is growing. but even though the navy is improving its skills here, it does not yet have a specific mission to protect critical infrastructure. the legal situation in germany is complicated, even when it comes to who is allowed to track and still in the freshman ships, and where the seas divided into various saelens and which different all sorties are responsible. under german law. german powers begins here in the exclusive economic zone. the so called easy. the federal police are responsible here. within the 12 miles zone, where power is of greater, it is the police forces of the respective federal states. in both phones, the navy provide support when russian spies ships appear. after all,

the navy is indispensable for protecting critical infrastructure, etc. and yet, they still do not have a legal mandates to do so. my interest is that my wishes simply clarity, a clear emissions, clear assignment of responsibilities. and in particular, there is the speed factor. we need to be fast in these areas. so we need to have a clear agreement and chain of command. this is, you know, into leaping uncertainty as to whether they are allowed to act or not. how do they go to this? after all, the challenges facing german security agencies are enormous. so unfortunately, you can't defend seen under warranty infrastructure, and you can't shield it in the same way that you can on land. and we shouldn't give credence to the belief that you can precisely monitor and protect every single major of cable to see the thing kind of steps that is almost issues.

operators also fear possible, sabotaged above the water in the large wind farms in the north and baltic seas. in the future, the wind farms are expected to generate the equivalent of $300.00 nuclear power plants. the select tricity is intended to make your up independent from russian gas, and that seems to be attracting rushes attention. winds farm operators are constantly spouting ships by their facilities, and they are nervous offices. and as it looks, when such ships have appeared in this kind of situation in the past, you know, company, if they're tracking systems switched off, then you cannot see them on the system. it's nice because the in then suddenly there's a visual contact to contact us. and the situations create uncertainty, especially in the context of gas pipelines and the alleged accidents for acts of sabotage that we've seen the sample size off to do because they know private

investors shy away from risks, including the risk of possible sabotage. one does have a key on certain t factor a lou and could meet investors, start hesitating and stuff so that could ultimately slow down the energy transition . or in the worst case scenario. you mean it didn't happen? natal the some some if i even got mixed up with unknown to us at the time of that interview, a russian ship had appeared in this wind farm. our card is aust one off the german baltic sea island of include in last year. it was the glory. gluck saw the ship that it seemed suspicious to us in our research vessel. that's 6 sags through the submarine exercise area. we discovered this from security sources. the ship only changed course when the german federal police called upon it to do so. shortly afterwards, a photographer took this picture that were also armed forces on board this research vessel. we asked the russian government about the going to the left side of the

journey and about the other alleged research vessels, but do not receive an answer. but our data analysis is bearing fruit. the more signals revealed rates that are supposed to remain secret since the beginning of the war in ukraine. we have counted dozens of trends. it's by research vessels through the baltic sea. we can also identify more than 60 particularly suspicious passages through the north sea and both succeed 6 ad courses and calling grades. for example. we also find conspicuous movements in the 12 milestones of nato countries. in other words, very close to the coast. nearly much look is a maritime law expert at keel university. she believes a more robust approach could be adopted, especially in the 12 milestone. my kind of young, we could hinder the activities, ask them to leave the coastal waters, and in my view, you must ask them to do that philosophy. is it also possible to take action against

the alleged research vessels? further off the coast, the authorities currently have little power are there. there are no appropriate laws yet. this is where most of the specially striking journeys take place. germany is lagging behind when it comes to clear regulation. tradition, i'm the i get the impression we haven't progressed as quickly as we should of other countries are already much further ahead of a few 5, but i don't see any real movement towards creating new legal foundations. there are drafts there are discussions in parliament, but relatively little comes out of that. but we like to finish before it political players involved in these discussions also continue to see security gaps. the listen now and we have to learn to re organize things. but when you try to get down to brass tacks, i just hope that everyone involved is prepared to make sacrifices in certain cases

so that this protection is guaranteed even to the switch. because the structure with its many responsibilities in the federal system where everyone does their own thing, all is all that has proved this value. but today, almost 80 years after the 2nd world war, we have a completely different security situation. they click fully on those. if we want to protect ourselves against despots, we need much simpler avenue call. can get dorothy in front of the vegas the various ministries responsible in germany say that legal changes are being discussed. but when and if they will be implemented is completely open. while germany is arguing about responsibilities, russia is continuing its systematic espionage. and the last more signal from the city of re i'll call up was sent in june, decoded. the signal reveals a series of numbers that series of numbers told us its

position, which was the northwest of denmark cheer. the severe yacht club again appeared near a gas pipeline. our analysis shows that once again, it was crossing back and forth over it. this time, it is the euro pipe, which runs from norway to northern germany and supplies millions of households with gas. the super eoc holes continues its mission, making surveillance courses, spying on the sea bed completely unhindered the keys celebrated like a superhero. despite devastating economic crises and famines,

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a story behind the news. we roll about unbiased information all 3 months. the this is dw news line from berlin. the white house makes another push for a ceasefire in the mid east before next month's us presidential election. secretary of state anthony, blinking begins his old as this trip to the region. as israel strikes an organization, it accuses a financing has belong. also coming up. a narrow yes involved over to joining the european union. spied allegations of russian interference and a referendum there. then us and european leaders welcome the result as a victory for democracy. the.