Getty ImagesGerman Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said it was unclear who was responsible for the damage to two submarine cables in the Baltic Sea and that it appeared to be a “compound act” of sabotage.
A 1,170-kilometre (730-mile) communications cable connecting Finland and Germany was severed early on Monday, and a 218-kilometre internet link between Lithuania and the Swedish island of Gotland also stopped working on Sunday.
The incident occurred at a time of heightened tensions with Russia, and Pistorius said: “No one believes that these cables were accidentally cut.”
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in earnest, a series of incidents involving pipelines in the Baltic Sea have raised concerns about sabotage.
Germany and Finland both said they were “deeply concerned” about the cutting of the C-Lion 1 cable communications cable, adding that European security was threatened not only by Russia’s war but also by “hybrid warfare by malicious actors”. Ta.
Senior, a Finnish communications and cybersecurity company, said its cables may have been cut “by an external force.” “Without external influence, this kind of destruction would not occur in this area,” a spokesperson told local media.
Senior’s chief executive said the damage occurred near the Swedish island of Oland and repair could take five to 15 days.
The two cables cross in the Baltic Sea, but the damage is believed to have occurred elsewhere.
Sweden’s Civil Defense Minister Karl-Oskar Bolin said it was “critically important” to find out why the two cables were not working. About a fifth of Lithuania’s internet capacity has been cut, but consumers are not believed to be affected.
Samuli Bergström, a cybersecurity expert with the Finnish government, said the outage did not affect internet traffic between Germany and Finland as other cable routes were available.
The biggest act of destruction since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 occurred in the Baltic Sea that same year.
German prosecutors continue to investigate the explosion of the Nord Stream gas pipeline connecting Russia and Germany.
There are conspiracy theories surrounding the attack, including unconfirmed rumors that either the Ukrainian, Russian or US governments were behind it.
In October 2023, the natural gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was seriously damaged.
Finnish authorities later announced that the incident was caused by a Chinese container ship dragging its anchor.
