Cargo ship suspected of launching Russian drones off the German coast is heading to the Baltic Sea
A cargo vessel drawing the attention of European security services, the HAV Dolphin (IMO 9073854), sailing under the flag of Antigua and Barbuda, is expected to arrive in the Finnish port city of Vaasa on Thursday morning. German and Dutch authorities suspect the ship may have served as a platform for Russian reconnaissance drones, Finland’s Yle reported.
Officials were alerted by the HAV Dolphin’s unusual movements. According to The Insider, the ship left Kaliningrad on April 23, headed to Liepaja, Latvia, approached the German port of Kiel on May 1 and anchored there for eight days. It then transited the Kiel Canal into the North Sea, sailed through the English Channel toward Spain, and later returned along the same route.
Such an extended anchorage is unusual for a commercial cargo vessel. During that period, media reported multiple drone sightings near the German Navy’s submarine base in Eckernförde. German police boarded the HAV Dolphin, and later Dutch police, the national gendarmerie and customs in Rotterdam also carried out checks but found no suspicious materials. The crew was Russian.
Investigators nevertheless noted that the vessel approached Kiel unusually slowly - behavior they say could point to reconnaissance activity - and anchored in an atypical location. Drones, they added, could be quickly jettisoned overboard.
The Dossier Center reported that the ship’s owner, Norwegian company Hav Bulk AS, denied that any police search had taken place. The company said the vessel was simply waiting for a loading order, anchored exactly where the port authority had instructed. An order was allegedly received on May 9, after which the HAV Dolphin headed to Bremen, Germany.
The HAV Dolphin case was not the only incident. Two days after Dutch police searches on that vessel, a chase unfolded in the North Sea near the island of Borkum: the German patrol vessel Potsdam followed the Russian cargo ship Lauga. Authorities noted seven drones circling in the ship’s vicinity. After some time, the drones began tailing the patrol boat itself.
An unusual procession formed: the Russian freighter in front, the German patrol ship behind it, and a group of drones following both. The standoff lasted about three hours before the drones suddenly disappeared. The patrol crew could not identify the drone models or determine whether they were launched from the Lauga.
On May 28, the Lauga arrived in Zeebrugge, Belgium, where local customs, tipped off by German authorities, searched the vessel. No suspicious materials were found. Questioning of the 11 crew members - all Russian citizens - also yielded nothing.
Despite the lack of evidence, the incident appears to have alarmed German security agencies. It was documented in a confidential report seen by Der Spiegel, which first reported the episode without naming the vessel.