Severed internet cables raise suspicion of sabotage in Baltic Sea
Editor's note: The article was updated with comments from German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius for the media.
Telecom cables linking two Nordic countries with Germany and Lithuania were cut at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, raising suspicion of sabotage, various media outlets reported on Nov. 18.
While the circumstances of the incident remain unclear, the reports come amid mounting warnings of Russian hybrid and sabotage operations across Western countries, namely in the Baltic Sea region.
One of the cables, a 1,200-kilometer (750-mile) long one linking Helsinki with the German port of Rostock, stopped working on Nov. 18, while the shorter, a 218-kilometer-long (135 miles) link between Lithuania and Sweden’s Gotland Island, went out of service on Nov. 17, The Guardian reported.
Gotland, Sweden's largest island, is located about 330 kilometers (around 200 miles) north of the Russian exclave Kaliningrad, the headquarters of Russia's Baltic Fleet, and is strategically important for the defense of the Baltic Sea region.
"We are deeply concerned about the severed undersea cable connecting Finland and Germany in the Baltic Sea. The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage," a joint statement by Germany and Finland read.
The parties announced an investigation.
"Our European security is not only under threat from Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors," the statement added.
Speaking to the media, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said it remains unclear who was behind the "hybrid" operation.
"No one believes that these cables were cut accidentally . . . Therefore we have to state, without knowing specifically who it came from, that it is a ‘hybrid’ action," Pistorius told the Financial Times.
"And we also have to assume, without knowing it yet, that it is sabotage."
This incident comes a little more than two years after unknown actors blew up the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines.
