LIZZY BUCHAN: I watched armed men storm ship for chilling show of force against Russia - The Mirror

The Mirror's Lizzy Buchan has been in Finland with Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, where Finnish patrols are monitoring the freezing waters along NATO's eastern flank

As I looked out onto the deck of the Finnish patrol ship, armed men rappelled down from a helicopter and began to storm the ship.

The masked guards raced to the bridge, shouting furiously, as they took control. Luckily for me, it was only a drill, performed by the Finnish Border Guard, who are on the front line against Russia, policing an 830-mile border along NATO’s eastern flank. The force also actively confronts Putin’s shadow fleet in the Gulf of Finland, and has raided vessels suspected of damaging critical undersea cables.

Camo-clad men did the demo on how they would seize control of a suspect vessel for Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper as she began a two-day tour of Finland and Norway yesterday. Russia felt alarmingly close as we boarded the Turva, an offshore patrol vessel, in Helsinki, looking out onto the Gulf of Finland. The ice-filled waters stretch to the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea - St Petersburg.

With Russia on its doorstep, the Finns are forced to grapple with Putin’s sabotage tactics and hybrid warfare. But Ms Cooper’s visit shows how much of a threat the Russian shadow fleet poses to Britain.

In our interview, she ramped up her rhetoric on the action needed to crack down on the network of creaking oil tankers flying under dubious flags. Not only are they helping to fund Putin’s illegal war against Ukraine by evading Western sanctions, these dark ships have also been accused of sabotaging undersea cables which carry telecommunications data and vital energy supplies such as electricity, oil and gas.

The UK is believed to be looking at the legalities of using military force to board these vessels after providing assistance to US special forces in a dramatic raid on a Russia-linked tanker last week. The Foreign Secretary’s visit to the region comes as tensions over the Arctic hot up.

Warming seas due to climate change have triggered a power struggle as new shipping lanes open up and resources are exposed by melting ice. Donald Trump’s threats to annex Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, have shot the issue to the top of the global agenda.

Britain wants to show it can play a pivotal role in shaping the security of the High North with NATO allies. But the US President could blow this all apart if he makes good on his threats.