"The towing convoy is moving eastwards to a position northeast of Cape Arkona (Rügen)," Germany's Central Command for Maritime Emergencies (CCME) said, referring to the German island in the southwestern part of the Baltic Sea.
The meeting, co-organized by Finland and Estonia, will focus on enhancing NATO's presence in the Baltic Sea and responding to risks posed by Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, a group of tankers allegedly used for sanction evasion and espionage.
A fleet of up to 10 NATO vessels will guard the infrastructure under the Baltic Sea until April, the Finnish broadcaster YLE reported on Jan. 7 after several cables were cut in suspected sabotage.
The Helsinki District Court has ruled to keep the oil tanker — suspected of belonging to Russia's "shadow fleet" — under seizure, despite an appeal from the ship's owner.
The damaged cable is one of several recent incidents in the Baltic Sea under investigation as possible acts of sabotage.
NATO allies met on Dec. 30 to address the security of critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, following damage to undersea cables connecting Estonia and Finland several days earlier.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Dec. 27 that "NATO will enhance its military presence in the Baltic Sea" following the recent damage to the Estlink 2 power cable in the Gulf of Finland likely caused by Russia.
The F-35s, deployed under NATO’s eastern airspace monitoring mission, intercepted a Russian An-72 transport aircraft and an SU-24 reconnaissance aircraft.
The comments came shortly after a Russian warship fired a warning shot at a German military helicopter patrolling the Baltic Sea.
Data from maritime tracking group MarineTraffic shows the Yi Peng 3, traveling from Russia to Egypt, passed near the Swedish-Lithuanian and Finnish-German cables on Nov. 17 and Nov. 18, the dates the cables were damaged.
Telecom cables linking two Nordic countries with Germany and Lithuania were cut on the bottom of the Baltic Sea, raising suspicion of sabotage, various media outlets reported on Nov. 18.
For Zygimantas Pavilionis, a member of the Lithuanian parliament, history is repeating itself: The Kremlin’s military sights are set on Europe beyond Ukraine and the U.S. is not listening to warnings from the Baltics. “In Europe, they listen to the Baltics, but in America, they are so arrogant
Germany's Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft were scrambled due to a flight of a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance plane in over the international waters of the Baltic Sea, the German Air Force said on Oct. 16.
Lithuania announced this week it had blocked and fortified a bridge over the Nieman River linking it to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, the latest in a series of escalations in the Baltic Sea region. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine exacerbated fears of a potential open conflict between Moscow and
The Russian Baltic Fleet minesweeper Alexander Obukhov was put out of action thanks to a sabotage operation by Ukraine's military intelligence, the agency said on Oct. 7.
Nikolai Patrushev, an advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused the West on Sept. 27 of attempting to isolate Kaliningrad Oblast by disrupting transportation links between the exclave and mainland Russia. Speaking at a meeting in Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea, Patrushev claimed
NATO jets intercepted six Russian aircraft flying over the Baltic Sea without transponders or a flight plan over the past two days, the Latvian Air Force reported late on Sept. 21.
Czech President Petr Pavel said that he had no verified information on whether Kyiv was involved in the operation to blow up the gas pipelines.
The man, a diving instructor introduced simply as Volodymyr Z., was last seen in a Polish town west of Warsaw, but his current whereabouts are unknown, the investigation by ARD, Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), and Die Zeit said.
The German and Swedish air forces scrambled NATO jets on Aug. 3 after two Russian jets were detected heading toward Latvian airspace over the Baltic Sea.
Lithuania has submitted a diplomatic protest and has summoned diplomatic representatives from Russia's embassy in Vilnius after a Russian civilian aircraft entered the country's airspace without permission, Lithuania's Foreign Ministry said on July 2.
"On the Danish side, we have assembled a circle of countries that will look at the possibilities for further measures against the shadow fleet," Danish Foreign Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said in an interview.
A draft decree suggesting changing Russia's border in the Baltic Sea was deleted from the Russian government website on May 22 after swift condemnation from some NATO members.
Russian President Vladimir Putin may be seeking dominance over the Baltic Sea and has his sights on the island of Gotland, Micael Byden, Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces, said in an interview with RND published on May 21.
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