Sweden suspects sabotage after new undersea cable damage
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The Swedish authorities have launched a sabotage investigation after an undersea telecoms cable was damaged in the Baltic Sea, the Swedish newspaper Goteborgs-Posten reported on Feb. 21.
The news comes following a string of cases of damaged undersea infrastructure in the region, with some officials connecting the incidents to hybrid attacks and Russia's "shadow fleet."
The fiber-optic cable running between Finland and Germany was damaged near Gotland Island within the Swedish exclusive economic zone, Sweden's Coast Guard said.
The Finnish telecom operator Cinia described the damage as minor and said it did not impact the cable's functionality. According to the Finnish media, this is the third time the cable has been damaged in a short span of time.
The Swedish Coast Guard said the incident was first recorded on Feb. 20, but it remains unclear when it occurred.
"We take all reports of potential damage to infrastructure in the Baltic Sea very seriously," Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on X.
"As I have already said, these incidents must be viewed in the context of the existing serious security situation."
NATO has ramped up its presence in the Baltic Sea following multiple cases of damaged infrastructure, deploying additional patrol vessels to ward off potential sabotage.
While Russian-linked vessels have been detained in connection to the incidents, some voices in the U.S. and European intelligence community believe them to be the result of simple accidents.
The suspicions nevertheless add to the tensions between NATO and Russia as the West threw its support behind Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion.
