Telecoms cable in Baltic Sea may have been severed, says Finnish owner
GuardianNOV 20 2024
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorious has claimed that damage to two undersea data cables since Sunday were "hybrid action[s]" that "no believes... were cut accidentally," describing the act as "sabotage."
The first cable to go down — a 135-mile (218 km) internet link between Lithuania and the Swedish island of Gotland — went offline at roughly 0800 GMT on Sunday, according to a Lithuanian subsidiary of Sweden's Telia Company.
The second cable — a 745-mile (1,200 km) line between Finland's capital of Helsinki to the German port city of Rostock — was disrupted around 0200 GMT on Monday, the Finnish state-controlled cyber security and telecoms company Cinia said.
While the severing of these telecommunications cables has not been directly blamed on Russia, there is much suspicion that this may have been the hand of Moscow. Reports from last year showed the presence of Russian spy ships in Nordic waters, the US has noted increased Russian activity by undersea cables in recent weeks, while only days ago a Russian vessel had to be removed from Irish waters. With tension between Russia and Europe at a historic high, it does not take much to assume this was Putin's doing.